RE: slave exports

From: Nick Brooke <Nick_at_...>
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 18:18:38 +0100


Gareth wrote:

> So I see the correct reading of "no traditional rights to the labour
> of others" means that they don't have class rights the way layers of
> aristocracy do; in which case the Lunar situation is much like the rise
> of the bourgeoisie in Europe, in which mass labour has to be arranged
> by different forms of social relation than that employed by the
> ancien regime.

Ziggackerly. You've hit the nail on the head. Karl Marx would be proud. (Though the usual caveats about socialist or communist theories used within the Lunar Empire probably apply. Forget Spartacus!).

> Big chunks of the population of Rome were slaves or ex-slaves. Do slaves
> work exclusively in the latifundia, or also baths, public amentiies,
> private assistants etc?

The latter is much more fun, IMO. Prisoner-of-war type slaves may initially go to the latifundia, the dart arenas, etc.; but skilled slaves, and the children of slaves, and debt-slaves, etc. will also exist and have other options.

> What proportion of the population in lunar cities would be slaves?

Evidence suggests it's lower than the proportion in Ancient Rome or the antebellum Southern United States (the two great slave-holding societies), as there are also traditional (non-slavery-based) forms of social oppression. I'll root around in Keith Hopkins' "Conquerors and Slaves" later tonight and send you the figures he calculated for various historical societies.

Cheers, Nick

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