Principles of Political Economy, Vol. 1Roscher, Wilhelm
History
Principles of Political Economy, Vol. 1
Roscher, Wilhelm
Economics
Slavery promotes the division of labor only in the very beginning. The
more dependent the slave is, the worse he works. Whatever he spoils or
allows to go to waste injures only his master. Hence it is that
slave-husbandry is only one degree removed from what the Germans call
_Raubbau_, and which means, as nearly as we can translate it, the most
thoughtless and wasteful management possible.(414) Whatever he consumes is
simply so much gain to himself. Industry and skill are injurious to him,
because, if remarkable for these qualities, his master exacts more work
from him and is more adverse to setting him at liberty. Instead of the
numberless incentives of the free workman: care for the future, for his
family, honor and comfort, the slave is generally moved by one—the fear of
ill-treatment, and to this he gradually becomes insensible.(415) The
division of labor demanded by manufactures, and which is to be found for
the most part only where each person is at liberty to choose his own
avocation, is scarcely supposable where slavery, in the strict sense of
the word, prevails. The same is true of the spirit of invention and
improvement.(416) And even where the milder _glebæ __ adscriptio_ obtains,
the division of labor is much hindered. Hence, competent judges all agree
on the badness of slave labor;(417) which, as for instance in the United
States, was used only where the slaves were crowded together in large
numbers and could therefore be easily superintended. And not only are the
slaves themselves indolent, but their masters as well; more particularly
in slave countries where all labor is considered disgraceful. What must be
the national husbandry of a people, one half of whom refuse to do anything
that is right and proper, through malice, and the other half through
pride! As soon as, on account of increased population and consequent
increased consumption, this enormous waste of force can be endured no
longer, free workmen become more profitable, not only to themselves and to
the whole community, but to the greater number of the individuals who
compose it.(418) On the Bernstoff estates the quantity of rye harvested
before and after emancipation was as 3:8-⅓; of barley-corn as 4:9-⅓; of
oat-grain as 2-⅔:8.(419)
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