Profitability and Economic Rationality of Slavery in a Historical Perspective

Profitability and Economic Rationality of Slavery in a Historical Perspective examines slavery as an economic institution across the longue durée, from the ancient Near East and classical Mediterranean to the modern Atlantic world. Moving beyond traditional moral or ideological interpretations, the volume investigates how systems of slavery were justified, organized, and sustained within different historical, social, and economic contexts. Particular attention is devoted to the historiographical legacy of the modern abolitionist debate, which introduced analytical categories such as profitability, efficiency, and rationality that continue to shape the study of slavery in both modern and ancient societies.

Bringing together specialists of modern, ancient Near Eastern, Greek, and Roman history, this book adopts a deliberately comparative and diachronic perspective. The contributions explore themes including pro-slavery thought in Enlightenment Europe, the persistence of slavery in nineteenth-century Cuba, the valuation of enslaved persons in Mesopotamia and Egypt, female and child labor in the ancient world, slave markets, manumission practices, and the relationship between enslaved and free labor. Collectively, the essays challenge simplistic assumptions about slavery’s inherent irrationality or inefficiency and instead highlight its adaptability as a system of labor organization, capital investment, and social control.

This volume will be of interest to scholars and students of slavery studies, ancient history, economic history, labor history, and comparative historical sociology, as well as to readers interested in the long-term historical dynamics of coercion, labor, and economic institutions.