Slavery and Technology in Pre-Industrial Contexts
by Tracey Rihll
Abstract: On the relationship between slavery and technological innovation in the Greco-Roman world. Slaves in the manufacturing and service sectors performed high-skill or care-intensive work, and were motivated by compensatory and conditioned power rather than by condign power. They were educated in skills and techniques, either before or during enslavement, and had reason to want to improve their productivity : the prospect of freedom. Slavery is not antithetical to technical progress when the slaves are motivated by reward rather than punishment. Slavery forced people with diverse technical skills and education across linguistic and cultural boundaries, and concentrated them in large cities and in monarchs’ capitals and palaces. Slavery was perhaps the main agent of technology transfer and innovation in any society in which physical mobility amongst the free was unusual.
Chapter in Slave Systems: ancient and modern, ed. by Enrico Dal Lago and Constantina Katsari (Cambridge University Pr., 2008), pp. 127-147.
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