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THE
CLASSICAL LIBERAL TRADITION dmhart@mac.com © 2003 |
THE
RADICAL LIBERALISM OF CHARLES COMTE AND CHARLES
DUNOYER 3. THE DEBATE AMONG LIBERAL POLITICAL ECONOMISTS ON THE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY - SAY, HODGSON AND STORCH[169] |
Updated:
October 28, 2003 |
The study of slavery became increasingly important to Comte and Dunoyer after the initial discussion in a number of reviews in Le Censeur européen. Their original condemnation of slavery had been based upon political and moral grounds but this, under the influence of their study of political economy and class theories of history from 1817 onwards, became more and more economic and, as we might say today, sociological in its focus. Both Comte and Dunoyer placed slavery in the centre of their theories of "legislation" and "industry" respectively. Comte devoted all of Book 5 of his Traité de législation (1827) to a discussion of the impact slavery had on evolution of modern societies' legal and economic structures.[170] In this book he provides a sophisticated and detailed sociological and economic analysis of slave societies in both the ancient world and the contemporary empires of England, Holland, Spain, and the Southern States of the United States of America. The nature of the exploitation of slaves by the unproductive aristocratic class, the way in which the form of plantation production determines the degree of slave exploitation, the relationship between slave owners and the protection of their property by the state, the reasons for the decline of the Roman empire, the nature of obedience to authority, the reasons for the oppressed classes to seek a "usurper" like Marius or, as Comte seems to hint at, Napoleon to overcome their distress and exploitation, and the relative efficiency and profitability of slave labour are questions to which Comte devotes considerable attention. Likewise Dunoyer argued that slavery was one of the main systems of exploitation in the evolution of society through economic stages. Beginning with a substantial chapter in L'industrie et la morale (1825) Dunoyer's discussion of slavery gradually expanded over the years into a more general treatment of free and unfree labour in his magnum opus, De la liberté du travail (1845).[171] By this date, his interest was less in formal slavery than in the new "slavery" he believed existed in socialist plans to control the economy.
During the Restoration slavery for Comte and Dunoyer typified in so many ways the very opposite of what they were struggling to achieve, that is, to create a legal system which protected individual liberty and property and an economic system in which labour was completely free of the restrictions and burdens which had hampered economic development in the ancient and medieval world. The persistence of slave societies in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries indicated to them the barriers which still remained to the universalisation of the liberal industrial ideal. Furthermore, their historical investigations (like those of the liberal Guizot and the socialist Marx) led them to the conclusion that the development of western European societies could be traced back to the fall of the slave-based Roman Empire. They believed that a large part of the class structure and the political and legal values of the modern European world were the historical result of the evolution of two systems of coerced labour: the institution of slavery in the ancient world and the institution of serfdom which emerged during the feudal period. They believed that the breakdown of the ancient slave economies had exerted a determining influence over what was to follow in European history, in particular with legal theory, political culture and impediments to the emergence of a liberal industrial economic system.
Apart from the historical interest Comte and Dunoyer showed in the slavery problem, it also provided them with a means of defining what they meant by exploitation and productive labour. Slavery in its pure and ancient form was the definitive case of exploited labour, the slave owners that of the parasitic unproductive class. Slaves at the one extreme and independent artisans and entrepreneurs (or the class of "industrials" as they termed it) at the other were the two end-points of the spectrum of exploitation and freedom and these two ideal types were the basic elements in Comte's and Dunoyer's interpretation of history. In Dunoyer's theory of economic evolution slavery and the economic system to which it gave rise formed an important part.[172] Well before Marx formed his own theory of history, Dunoyer was arguing that societies evolved from one stage to another by changes in the mode of production. Beginning with hunter-gatherer societies his schema included nomadism, settled agriculture, slavery, serfdom, the political privileges of mercantilism, and finally the ultimate stage of "industrialism." The different modes of production in each stage of society's evolution also influenced that society's moral and political attitudes and this was as true for slave societies as any other. In the evolution of society from ancient slavery, to tribal conquest, feudalism, and mercantilism the specifics of exploitation might gradually change, becoming quite complex at times, but they were still essentially the same as that which existed between a chattel slave and its master. Modern taxation, tariffs, guild and professional restrictions were all interpreted as complex and refined examples of exploitation which were nothing but unfortunate variations on an ancient theme. The essence of exploitation in Comte's and Dunoyer's view was the systematic violation of property rights of one class by another, usually achieved by means of the coercive taking of the fruits of one's labour either directly, as was the case in ancient slavery, or indirectly by taxation or tariffs in the modern world.
Before turning to an analysis of Comte's and Dunoyer's later views on slavery, the broader debate about the economic and "moral" effects of slavery which occupied liberal political economists and abolitionists (who were often one and the same people) during the Restoration period needs to be examined. Any reading of Comte's and Dunoyer's works on slavery presupposes an awareness of a debate which had taken place in the early 1820s after Comte and Dunoyer had ended their period of active political journalism but before the appearance of their large printed works. Though important in its own right, this debate about the economic profitability of slave labour compared to free wage labour was also very important in the development of Comte's and Dunoyer's view of slavery. This happened both because it served to confirm their beliefs that something immoral could not be also profitable in the long run and that industry would inevitably prevail over other less economically efficient systems of labour, and because their mentor Say was involved in the dispute. The issue of free and productive versus coerced and unproductive labour was vital to the liberals' belief that a "true fit" existed between economics and morality. The liberal abolitionists in London and Liverpool were convinced that something as immoral and unchristian as slavery could not be profitable and they came up with some ingenious theoretical and historical arguments to argue their case. Say and Comte were impressed by these arguments and the wealth of detailed economic and historical information about conditions in the British and American slave colonies which the British abolitionists published as part of their campaign against slavery.
Adam Smith can be credited for initiating the modern debate among political economists about the relative profitability of free and slave labour. In Book I, chapter viii, paragraph 41 of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith discusses the problem of the comparative cost of "the wear and tear" of free labourers and slaves. He believed the latter's "wear and tear" was borne directly by the slave master and that this cost was not kept to a minimum because of the bad management practices of "a negligent master or careless overseer." The "wear and tear" of the former was borne partly by the employer who, by paying subsistence or above subsistence wages, covered some of this cost. However, what tipped the balance in favour of free wage labour over slave labour was the capacity of wage labourers to manage better and hence keep to a minimum the cost of maintaining themselves. In Smith's words "the strict frugality and parsimonious attention of the poor" meant, in the last analysis, "that the work done by freemen comes cheaper in the end than that performed by slaves."[173] The debate between the British abolitionists and the French political economists had followed the precedent set by Smith in phrasing the question in the following manner: is the labour performed by slaves less costly than the labour performed by free men? This was the question Jean-Baptiste Say (in his writings of the late 1810s and early 1820s), Adam Hodgson and Henri Storch were trying to answer. Comte and Say (in his writings in the late 1820s) rejected this question as too narrowly defined, or "peu philosophique" as Comte put it.[174]
The most important figure after Smith was Jean-Baptiste Say whose economic and sociological writings were to influence Comte and Dunoyer so profoundly. In the early editions of the Traité d'économie politique Say had argued that slavery, though immoral, was in fact very profitable. Even as late as 1819, when the fourth edition of his Traité appeared, Say was arguing that slave labour was considerably cheaper than free labour. In a chapter on the economic consequences of colonies Say discusses the arguments of Steuart, Adam Smith and Turgot (all of whom believed free labour was cheaper and more productive than slave labour), but he ultimately rejects their authority in favour of information he has about the price of slave labour in the Antilles which he believes shows that a slave is F1,300 per annum cheaper than a free labourer.[175] The exception to this rule is the highly skilled labour of clockmakers or tailors, but for simple hand labour slavery appears to be cheaper than free labour. Say explains this phenomenon by the fact that black slaves can survive with only the clothes on their backs, the simplest of food and meanest lodgings, whereas free labourers need to earn enough to support their wives and children at a much higher standard of living. Whatever the economic needs and desires of the black slaves may be, it is the master who is able to enforce savings upon them and keep the cost of their labour to a bare minimum. Thus plantations in Santo Domingo are so profitable that they can repay their purchase price in six years, whilst farms in Europe require twenty five or thirty years in which to repay their purchase price. Although, according to Say, slavery is enormously profitable for the plantation owners, it is not because they are industrious or provide a service to the consumers in the metropole. They are profitable because they are exploitative. They exploit the black slaves by forcing them to work for little or no return. They also exploit the consumers in Europe by their monopoly of the home market or high tariffs which artificially raise the price of their goods.[176]
Unfortunately for Say's liberalism his assessment of the extraordinary profitability of slave labour led him into an apparent contradiction. On the one hand, he was confident that further economic development in the Americas was unlikely "as long as they were infested with slavery."[177] The southern states might be able to grow cotton profitably but they lacked the industrial spirit which a free work force would provide to process the raw cotton into high value added products, as was done in New York. Thus he thought the slave states were economically "punished" for their immoral system of labour. The contradiction arose because he failed to realise that a system as profitable as he thought slavery to be could afford to send its products elsewhere to be processed. By a division of labour the Southern States and the West Indies could specialise in the production of certain crops grown by slave labour and the industrial cities of the North or England could specialise in the sweatshops and factories which used poorly paid free labour. Just how the plantation owners were "punished" by not having factories and the other aspects of industrial society in their midst is not made clear by Say. The high profits Say thought they had from slave labour provided them with more than enough resources to preserve their way of life, as Hodgson noted in his critique of Say.
An explanation for the disagreements between Say and his critics Hodgson and Storch is that there really are two different questions being considered. The first question is whether or not the price of slave labour is higher or lower than the price of free wage labour, which is the argument Say preferred to use at least initially. In other words, how much would it cost for a planter to hire a gang of slaves to do a particular job compared to hiring free labourers to do the same job? The second question concerns the overall economic efficiency of slavery as a labour system, how productive is slave labour in the long run, what incentives do slaves have to work well and efficiently, etc, which is the argument the British abolitionists liked to use. There seems to be little understanding that there are two different arguments involved. The confusion seems to go back to Adam Smith who used both arguments at times. The change which Say and Comte brought to the debate was to reject the former argument as irrelevant and to stress the latter as both more morally sound and more insightful into the exploitative nature of slavery.
Four years after the fourth edition of Say's Traité appeared, Say's view of the enormous profitability of slavery was subjected to a searching criticism by Adam Hodgson, writing on behalf of the Liverpool branch of the Society for Mitigating and Gradually Abolishing Slavery.[178] Adam Hodgson readily admitted the important contributions Say had made to the liberal cause but regretted Say's belief that slave labour was profitable. This belief, Hodgson remarked, made the activities of the Society that much harder, since one of the Society's main strategies was the campaign to show plantation owners that it was in their best economic interests to abandon slave labour and gradually adopt free wage labour. That one of the leading liberal political economists took the opposite view was a handicap to the abolitionist cause.
Hodgson began his letter with the following remarks:
It is with much concern that I observe, in your excellent and popular work on Political Economy, the sentiments you express on the subject of the comparative expense of free and slave labour. Accustomed to respect you highly, as an enlightened advocate of liberal principles, and to admire the philanthropic spirit which pervades your writings, I cannot but regret deeply, that opinions so much calculated to perpetuate slavery should have the sanction of your authority; and that, while you denounce the slave-system as unjustifiable, you admit that in a pecuniary point of view it may be the most profitable.[179]
The key calculation in any assessment of the profitability of slave labour, Hodgson maintained, was the relationship between the annual expenditure needed to maintain the slave and the "annual sum which, in the average term of the productive years of a slave's life, will liquidate the cost of purchase or rearing, and support in old age, if he attain it, with interest..."[180] A similar calculation was possible for free labour, "since the wages paid to free labourers of every kind, must be such as to enable them, one with another, to bring up a family, and continue the race."[181] Hodgson rejected Say's main arguments about the profitability of slavery. The first argument Say used was that the high price of free labour in the Antilles could be universalised into an economic principle concerning the relationship between free and slave labour. The second was that the reluctance of the slave owners to free their slaves was proof of the profitability of the slave-system. Hodgson rejected the first argument with the claim that, while in some places free labour might be more expensive than slave labour (in the case of the Antilles there were few free workers and labour was considered to be degrading), the general principle to be kept in mind was:
not, whether at a given time and place, free or slave labour is the highest, but whether both are not higher than labour would be if all the community were free, and the principle of population were allowed to produce its natural effect on the price of labour, by maintaining the supply and competition of free labourers.[182]
The second argument was rejected on the grounds that prejudice and passion blinded the planters' conception of their own true interest. Hodgson was convinced that, once the planters began to view their property in a truly commercial light rather than as a way of life, they would gradually recognise that their true interests would be best served by freeing their slaves and re-employing them as wage labourers.
To support his claim of the unprofitability of slave labour Hodgson draws upon Adam Smith, David Hume, Henri Storch, Brougham, and various memoirs written by slave owners and travellers. In his "Letter to Say" Hodgson developed a series of economic, historical and political arguments to support his case that, in fact, slave labour was vastly inferior to free wage labour in terms of its cost to the plantation owners and general levels of productivity. One of the main economic arguments he used depends upon the incentives and disincentives slaves faced to work productively. Citing the experience of a Joshua Steele of Barbados, Hodgson argues that in the cultivation of food crops the slaves have little incentive to be productive. They perform their work negligently and steal whatever they can get away with, which results in an overall rate of productivity which Steele estimates to be about one third the rate of free labourers.[183]
The argument about the economic incentives faced by slave and free labourers is probably the most important argument used by the abolitionists. For this reason Hodgson endeavours to base his case on directly reported experience and concrete examples rather than on pure theory. Some commentators liked to compare the price of sugar and other products produced on plantations which use either slave or free labour. Hodgson draws upon two examples to make his point: Dr Beattie claims that the price of products grown in Cochin China by free labour are lower than the price of the same goods grown by slave labour in the West Indies, an argument to be taken up by Comte in Traité de législation (see below); Botham claims that in the Dutch East Indies sugar is produced by free labour (what he calls the "East India mode") more cheaply than in the British colonies. The weakness of this way of arguing is that no attempt is made to separate the various factors which may influence the price in very different localities, such as differences in soil fertility, differences in plant types and so. Hodgson attributes the lower price of the goods in Cochin China and the Dutch East Indies solely to the fact that "free" labour is used. This is understandable given the political purposes of his task, which is to present free labour in the best possible light in order to persuade the slave owners in the Caribbean that it is their economic interests to give up slavery and use free wage labour in its place. Hodgson concludes this part of his case by quoting with approval the Russian political economist Henri Storch, who held the view that slaves are virtual unthinking "machines" who require constant supervision to do even the most menial task. The incompetence of the slaves requires overseers and managers, who in their turn can deliberately exploit the owner or raise costs through their indifference. Thus, in the absence of economic incentives for the slaves to work more productively and with some intelligence, the slave owner must resort to expensive forms of supervision which Hodgson believed was absent when free wage labourers were employed. The British abolitionist Lord Brougham concurs in this view and adds that slaves without economic incentives to work need the threat of violence or punishment, or as Brougham put it "the perpetual terror of the lash."
Some slave owners and plantation managers had realised this fact and had introduced experiments in order to provide the slaves with some economic incentive to be more productive. Joshua Steele had tried paying his slaves for the work they did in an attempt to mimic the incentive effects of free labour. Steele reported that after four years of trying such an experiment his economic return was increased threefold. Costs of supervision dropped and the care and diligence of the slaves in their work increased. Steele's experiment was very important to the cause of the British abolitionists and they used it repeatedly to drive home the point to slave owners that it was in their economic interests to abandon or at least reform the system of slave labour. In later editions of his Traité Say disputed the success of Steel's experiment and its usefulness as a model for other slave owners. Nevertheless, Steele provided an example of what an enlightened slave owner might do to increase the productivity of his slaves. Brougham suggested that it might prove to be a way in which slavery could gradually be done away with. In the transition period before the complete abolition of slavery, slaves might pay a tax or tribute to their master for the right to work on their own account or at market wage rates in his fields. This was also the view of Henri Storch whose work on the Russian serfs provided perhaps the best example of such a halfway house between slavery and free labour. Storch's important analysis will be discussed in more detail below. Hodgson concluded that the transition to free labour might be made via a two stage reform: the first introducing piece work to increase the productivity of slave labour; the second a system of profit sharing with the master via some kind of tax or tribute on their work.[184]
Hodgson used another tack in making his case, this time in asking what might happen if slavery were more profitable and productive than free labour. The example of the United States of America was instructive in this regard. With two clearly delineated zones in which slavery and free labour operated, the comparative effects of the two systems of labour could be observed. Hodgson compared the price of land in slave and non-slave regions with the assumption that, if slave labour were more productive, the price of land where slaves were used would be higher than land where free labour was used. The state of Maryland provided the best example with one region permitting slavery and another not. He found no difference in land prices in Maryland or in a comparison between prices in the states of Virginia (slave) and Pennsylvania (free). America also provided advocates of free labour with the example of a rapidly industrialising North using free wage labour and welcoming innovation and entrepreneurial activity and a South which changed very little and which was forced to seek new land as old land was exhausted by the method of cultivation. Many commentators viewed the difference between the North and the South as conclusive proof that the future lay with industrialism based upon free wage labour and not agriculture based upon slaves. Hodgson believed that the days of the South and slavery were numbered for a number of reasons. The South could not compete economically, its real labour costs were high, the workers had no incentive to be productive, innovation was not encouraged and the slave owners lacked an entrepreneurial attitude to production. There was also a political reason for the ultimate failure of the slave South. Nothing, Hodgson thought, could resist the spread of "republicanism," by which he meant the values of "1776" and "1789," in other words respect for the moral and legal equality of the individual, private property, the free market, and democracy. Even if slavery was not doomed for economic reasons it would soon be swept aside by the political imperative of republicanism which was even at that time spreading to Latin America with its waves of wars of liberation.[185]
Before concluding his case against slave labour, Hodgson had to explain why slavery had persisted for so long and appeared, at least, to be profitable. The best known example of a slave society which had existed for centuries was the Roman empire. Although it eventually grew "decadent" and declined, the fact that slavery existed for so long needed to be explained. Hodgson does not devote much attention to the case of ancient Roman slavery except to say that it ruined the small private farmer and prospered only as long as fresh sources of cheap slaves were available from the regular wars against non-Roman societies. When the source of cheap slaves dried up it was not long before the pernicious economic effects of slavery were felt. If the success of Roman slavery depended upon constant wars of conquest, the apparent success of slavery in the modern world owed much to the protective system of tariffs and exclusive trading zones. High cost slave labour, Hodgson argued, could only survive because it had a guaranteed market in the metropole where the high costs of production could be passed on to the consumer. Since the consumers of sugar, tobacco, indigo and cotton could not buy from alternative sources, they had to buy from the protected slave plantations. This system could not survive if a policy of free trade put an end to tariffs and exclusive trading zones. Interestingly, it was latter argument which Comte was to use in the Traité de législation (1827) and which Say was to adopt in his reformulation of the critique of slave labour in the Cours complet of 1828. Overall, Hodgson was convinced that the examples and arguments he had presented refuted Say's argument of the high profitability of slave labour on the Caribbean plantations. Now surely, Say must agree that not only was slavery immoral but also uneconomic. Hodgson concluded by summarising his case against arguments supporting the profitability of slave labour:
If then, it has appeared that we should be naturally led to infer, from the very constitution of human nature, that slave labour is more expensive than the labour of free men; if it has appeared that such has been the opinion of the most eminent philosophers and enlightened travellers in different ages and countries; if it has appeared that in a state where slavery is allowed, land is most valuable in those districts where the slave system prevails the least, notwithstanding great disadvantages of locality; and that in adjoining states, with precisely the same soil and climate, in the one of which slavery is allowed, and in the other prohibited, land is most valuable in that state in which it is proscribed; if it has appeared that slave labour has never been able to maintain its ground in competition with free labour, except where monopoly has secured high profits, or protecting duties afforded artificial support; if it has appeared that, in every quarter of the globe, in proportion as the planter rendered attention to economy more indispensable, the harsher features of the slave-system have disappeared, and the condition of the slave has been gradually assimilated to that of the free labourer; and if it has been found, by experience, to substitute the alacrity of voluntary labour, for the reluctance of compulsory toil; and that emancipation has rendered the estates on which it has taken place, greatly and rapidly more productive - I need not, I think, adduce additional proofs of the truth of the general proposition, that slave labour is more expensive than the labour of free men.[186]
Say responded to Hodgson's argument in a letter to the author, dated Paris 25 March 1823, which was published in the second edition of Hodgson's pamphlet which also appeared in 1823.[187] In the letter Say said he agreed with Hodgson on all the main issues and acknowledged that "You have collected, in a small space, an accumulation of facts and arguments which it appears to me impossible to refute."[188] Say attributed their difference of opinion to the fact that Hodgson most probably had read only the earlier editions of Say's Traité. Say claimed that in the later editions he had altered his views concerning the profitability of slave labour "so as to arrive nearly at the same conclusion as you."[189] He also claimed that he was expanding his remarks on slavery in a book on which he was currently working. As Say put it "I approach still nearer to your sentiments in the works I am preparing." Unfortunately, the precise work Say is referring to is not clear and the exact chronology of Say's change of opinion is very difficult to determine. All that one can say is that sometime between the publication of the fourth edition of Say's Traité and his reading of Hodgson's pamphlet Say had come to question the profitability of slavery. Confusion arises because Say could be referring to one of three works with which he was occupied at this time. There are indications of his change of heart in the all three works he published in the early 1820s, most notably his comments in his edition of Henri Storch's Cours d'économie politique (1823),[190] the lectures he gave at the Athénée which became the Cours complet d'économie politique pratique (1828),[191] and the fifth edition of the Traité. The sections of these works dealing with slavery and colonies, in conjunction with Say's reply to Hodgson's letter, provide the main source of information on Say's thinking in the early and mid 1820s. However, as of March 1823 when he responded to Hodgson's criticisms, his view of slavery was that it is
incompatible with productive industry, in a state of society moderately advanced. It is already verging towards its termination among all people of European origin; and as the restlessness and intelligence of Europe will ultimately pervade the globe, we may affirm that slavery will one day be extinguished everywhere.[192]
In the same year as Say responded to Hodgson's letter challenging his view of the profitability of slave labour he also had to come to terms with a leading Russian economist's analysis of the economics of serfdom and slavery in Eastern Europe. Henri Storch[193] was a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and a pioneer in the collection of economic statistics. He was a fairly orthodox member of the Smithian school of political economy and had the dubious pleasure of teaching the grand dukes (one was to become the Tsar) the principles of political economy. His lectures to the dukes were published in 1815 as the Cours d'économie politique and contain much of interest on the economics of serfdom and slavery in Russia and Eastern Europe. Jean-Baptiste Say was interested enough to edit a second, apparently unauthorised French edition in 1823 with extensive notes and comments by him. Say was not shy to criticise Storch quite severely, thus stinging Storch into publishing a fifth and supplementary volume to the new French edition in order to respond to some of Say's critical remarks.[194]
There is much of interest in Storch's work, but what concerns us here are his detailed discussions of the economics of forced labour, about which Say had nothing but praise, describing him as a "publiciste éclairé" and a "véritable philanthrope." Say concluded with the highest accolade an empirical political economist could bestow on another, that "concerning everything he says on slavery... (he) speaks on that which he has seen (with his own eyes)."[195] As an acute observer of the economic and social conditions in Russia, Henri Storch was well placed to present to the French-speaking world detailed information about the situation of slaves and serfs in Russia. Sometime before he had published a monumental work on economic statistics called the Tableau historique et statistique de l'empire de Russie à la fin du dix-huitième siècle (1797-1803),[196] the success of which got him appointed head of the statistical section of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. But it was the French edition of the Cours which made the situation of the Russian slaves and serfs known to a broader reading public. In Storch's conclusion to volume three Say found a summary of the nature of slavery which he thought to be the best he had ever seen. In a discussion of the ways in which the state could hinder the development of industry and individual prosperity by favouring one class over another, Storch turned to a special case of class privilege, that of slavery:
In other states the law tolerates (the existence) of servitude, that is to say it excludes the greatest number of inhabitants from the protection (of the law) which other citizens enjoy. The members of this class often find themselves exposed not, it is true to say, like savages to the rapacity of all those with whom they live, but to the violence of their masters. And the fear of these violent (acts) alone is sufficient to extinguish in them the wish to work and the desire to accumulate (property), even if they have the leisure and the means to devote to any labour which might be profitable to them.[197]
Storch's understanding of slave labour was a complex one. Like Comte and Dunoyer were to do in their works on slavery, Storch viewed it firstly in historical terms, as an important part of the gradual evolution of societies in which chattel slavery played a vital role, to feudal societies in which slavery was moderated in various ways, to the present, in which societies at different levels of development coexisted with different degrees of forced labour. Since he passionately believed in the idea of progress, the highest stage of human historical development was where individual liberty was fully realised and this meant of course a society in which slave labour in any form played no part. The particular historical moment in which he was writing was a crucial one because Europe had paved the way for the liberation of all mankind with the success of the French Revolution. The ideas of English and French liberty were now impossible to contain geographically and it would not be long before the remnants of slavery disappeared in Eastern Europe and Russia. Part of the intention of his Cours was to prepare the grand dukes for this happy eventuality, which Storch thought would occur sometime during their lifetime. Storch's confident prediction was that within one hundred years all vestiges of slavery in the European dominated world would have disappeared.
A second way in Storch viewed slavery was in sociological terms, as a form of class exploitation, which the above quotation so admired by Say clearly shows. He believed that slavery had a dire effect on population growth and perpetuated an unequal division of property ownership.[198] Storch argued that, in both the ancient world and the modern slave colonies, population growth was hindered by the existence of slavery, which thus created a need for continual injections of new slaves to maintain the labour supply. In comparison with free societies "never has a population made up of slaves ever increased in the same proportion as another population made up of free men."[199] This was also true he thought for European societies in which serfdom still existed. Using his favourite examples of the liberation of the serfs in the Danish king's domains in Holstein and the activities of the reform-minded Polish Count Zamoiski, he compared the rate of population growth before and after the liberation of the serfs and found that population growth took off only after liberation.[200] In a poetic analogy Storch compared the growth in population of the freed serfs to the spurt in growth of a young tree after pruning away branches which are impeding its development.[201]
Another sociological consequence of slavery was the lack of development of a middle class or "tiers-état." This had the consequence of preventing the formation of a class of prosperous consumers who could create the demand required for industrialisation to occur. Furthermore, the absence of a middle class meant that the spread of "enlightenment" did not occur, the middle class, Storch believed, being the mechanism by which "enlightenment" was transmitted. Storch shared Say's view of the importance of the middle class to the industrial economy and in turn quoted him with approval:
It is in this middle class, far from the cares and the pleasures of greatness, far from the anguish of misery, it is in this class that one finds honest fortunes, leisure mixed with the habit of work, the free communication of friendship, the taste of reading and travelling. It is in this class I say that enlightenment is born and it is there that it is spread among the great and the (common) people. It is because the great and the (common) people do not have the time to think. They adopt the truth only when it comes to them in the form of axioms no longer needing to be proved.[202]
The reason a middle class did not develop in slave societies was because the recruiting mechanism was absent. In free societies the middle class is recruited out of the more ambitious or hardworking lower class. The existing middle class acts as both a teacher and a model to which the lower class can aspire. In a slave society there is no way in which ambitious or hardworking slaves can leave their legally determined class position and "rise" into the class above. Also, if a slave society does have a middle class it is likely to be very rudimentary and weak, thus not strong enough to transform society as Storch and Say would like. In fact in slave societies the social forces act in the opposite way. Instead of influencing both "les grands" and "le peuple" with their industrious habits and their enlightenment, the middle class is attracted upwards to the nobility (or slave owners). Storch described this phenomenon as a "mania" for the trappings of the aristocracy, which existed to the detriment of industry and enlightenment in slave societies and in Europe of the ancien régime.[203] Instead of growing as it should and influencing society, the middle class tries to steer their children into careers which will ennoble them and divert their wealth (which should be invested in industrial enterprises) into investments in land and buildings in an attempt to ape the behaviour of the aristocracy. Thus the reproduction of the middle class and its "industrious" values does not occur and the society remains in a state of economic underdevelopment.[204] A further consequence of the lack of a middle class in slave societies was the domination of the "civil functions " of the state by the aristocracy, who were hostile to industry and who very much favoured the military. It was dangerous, Storch believed, to allow the military-minded aristocracy to monopolise the positions in law, politics, internal administration of the state, science, and the arts. Only a strong middle class, which believed in the usefulness of what Storch called "the division of non-material labour" (la division du travail immatériel) and devoted themselves to it as a lifetime career, could fulfil these tasks adequately.[205]
The third dimension to slavery was a moral one, dealing with the corruption of morals of both the slave owner and the slave. This is an aspect which Say did not pick up to the same extent as Comte and Dunoyer, who were to make it a central concern of their analyses of slavery in their respective Traité de législation and L'Industrie et la Morale. Thus it is more likely that Comte and Dunoyer were influenced by Storch than by Say in the matter of the moral corruption of slavery on both the slave and the slave-owner. This moral problem of slavery was the topic of the third part of Storch's chapter on the influence of slavery on "civilisation."[206] Storch begins by making the point that, without any security with which to enjoy their liberty or any property they might acquire, slaves naturally become "lazy, insouciant, (prone to) theft, dissipated, drunk."[207] Behind this shiftless exterior lies a deeply felt hatred towards the master, "a heart ulcerated by the injustice of its situation," which leads the slave when circumstances permit to rebellion, revenge and violence, as was the case with the slave uprising in Santo Domingo. The social consequences of slavery also impinge upon the family and public security. Like individual slaves, slave families cannot enjoy the security necessary to bring up children and to plan for the future. It is in the family that the slave's hatred for the master is strengthened and it is this underlying hatred which places the public security in jeopardy.[208] The feelings of hostility between master and slave mean that the master, being so outnumbered by his slaves, lives in a state of constant fear of an uprising.[209] Historically there had been many examples of isolated outbreaks of disgruntled slaves and serfs, ranging from Spartacus to Pugachev to Santo Domingo. Storch implies that unless the situation of the slaves is improved through amelioration schemes or abolition itself, the state will always face the prospect of recurring rebellion on the part of the slave population.
The fourth level of his analysis is economic and it is the aspect of slavery in which Say was most interested, as it was most directly relevant to his debates with Hodgson on the profitability of slave labour. Storch's contribution was unusual and perhaps quite original in that he stressed the modifications and ameliorations which slave labour had undergone in different parts of the world. Not all slaves were treated like the chattel slaves of antiquity or the Caribbean. He thought it was a mistake to base any economic analysis of slave labour on only these two extreme forms, without taking into account the more moderate slave systems of the Middle Ages and the eastern parts of Europe. Even within the Caribbean system of slavery there were important distinctions to be made between the relatively "unproductive" domestic slaves who waited at table for the master's personal benefit and the "productive" slaves who toiled in the fields growing sugar for the export market.[210]
As an expert on economic conditions in Russia, Storch was in a position of authority to discuss the variation in slavery which existed there. In particular, he focused upon two special types of forced labour - the modification of slavery which allowed the individual serf to work for himself, free of direct supervision by the master in return for a payment known as the "obroc," and the special class of serfs known as the "peasants of the royal domain" or "crown peasants." In both these cases Storch believed the Russian experience showed both the complexity of the nature of slave labour and a means of gradually abolishing its stricter forms in the Caribbean by following the Russian example of obroc or the institution of crown peasants. It will become clear that his scheme for improving the condition of the black slaves is similar to the experiments of "humane" slave owners which were much admired by Clarkson, Hodgson and other abolitionists and rejected by Say as not suited to the tropics.
In a "Note" in the fourth volume of his Cours,[211] Storch gave a detailed description of the class system in Russia, in which he described the different types of servitude. Of the three kinds of productive labouring classes two were coerced, the serfs and the slaves, and a third group was free. The "free class, (which) engaged in industrial work," included those nobles who worked their land for the purposes of agriculture, mining, forestry, fishing or manufacturing; "merchants of the three guilds," who engaged in commerce; the bourgeois or free artisans, who lived in towns (numbering 3,000,000 according to the census of 1782); and free agricultural workers. Included in the latter category were military colonists and the new class of "free cultivators" created by Tsar Alexander in 1803, who numbered only about 13,000 in 1810 and who had been liberated by being bought from their masters. Under the class of serfs Storch included all "crown peasants," who numbered some 4,675,000 males in 1782. The crown peasants could be divided into two groups, a small group of peasants used in the crown's mines and factories and a much larger group of peasants tied to the glebe. The crown peasants tied to the glebe provided Storch with the example of a "halfway house" between slavery and free labour. They were allowed to pay a tax ("cens" or obroc) to the crown, which was determined by the fertility of the soil and to which Storch likened to a form of land rent. Like the other peasants, the crown peasants were also obliged to pay the poll tax and to serve in the military, but what interested Storch most was that these serfs were allowed to keep whatever surplus they produced after having paid their taxes. Furthermore, they enjoyed the protection of the law and the property they were able to acquire could not be repossessed by their lord. Crown peasants had the right to leave their village upon receiving a passport which was valid for one, two or three years and, with the permission of the commune in which they lived, could move to a free town and engage in free labour there. Although they enjoyed some freedoms and perhaps could be classified as a free labourer, Storch preferred to classify the crown peasants as a kind of serf, since the crown could still force them to work in the mines or the government factories, to rent them out to others, or even to sell them. Storch quite correctly says these powers over their future meant they continued to behave economically more like slaves than free labourers. The third class were the slaves proper who were the peasants owned by individual members of the nobility and they numbered some 6,678,000 in the 1782 census. In law their situation appeared to be worse than it actually was in practice, according to Storch, since a combination of a softening in attitudes and the economic self-interest of the masters meant they were better treated than previously. Slaves owned by nobles could be rented out to others, forced to labour in the master's own fields, workshops or house, or they could be charged the obroc with the right to work elsewhere. In the latter case, the economics of their situation was similar to the more fortunate crown peasants.
According to Storch, any assessment of the economic efficiency of slave labour had to include all aspects of the slave system not just those slaves working in the fields. The use of domestic slaves by the plantation owner was just as much a part of the slave system as those of prime working age whose labour was usually compared to that of free wage labourers. Storch considered slaves as just another part of the master's total wealth which could be used for consumption or for productive purposes. Those slaves used for domestic purposes, as cooks and valets and housekeepers, Storch believed, were part of the master's expenditure on consumption.[212] As one might expect, Storch takes a dim view of the usefulness of the "unproductive" domestic slave as he calls them. Whereas a wealthy merchant or capitalist might have two or three domestic servants in Europe, in the colonies the slave owner indulged in half a dozen, the upkeep of which sorely taxed the overall productivity of the plantation. But whereas the industrial capitalist or merchant had acquired his wealth through hard work, economising and the careful supervision of his assets and could thus keep his indulgence in servants to a rational limit, the plantation owner did not have these industrious habits and was thus in a very weak position when tempted by the luxury or the "vice très grave" of plentiful slave servants. The unproductive use of potentially productive domestic servants, Storch concluded, had a deleterious effect on the overall productivity and efficiency of slave labour.[213] The other slaves who worked to produce saleable crops were part of the master's capital stock. Both types of slaves had to be assessed for their economic productivity in order to assess the overall efficiency of the slave system.
Storch, however, was more interested in the use of slaves as a capital asset which could be used to bring in revenue to the owner. He distinguished between three ways in which slave labour could be used: firstly, he could employ them himself on his plantation; secondly, he could rent them out to other plantation owners; and thirdly, he could "rent them out to themselves" (les louer à eux-mêmes) by charging them a "cens" or tax for the privilege of working for themselves. The first two methods of disposing of slaves as a capital asset involved supervised and forced labour or "corvées," whereas the latter method had more in common with free labour that was taxed. The third form of slave labour was common in Russia and Storch considered this to be the least oppressive system for the slaves and the most productive and economically efficient form of slavery.[214] When considered as a form of fixed capital, a kind of "human machine" which could earn a rent, it became possible to compare the returns of slave labour with more traditional income earning capital assets. For example, the annual rent from slave labour (irrespective of which of the three different ways a slave could be used) had to cover the interest on the purchase price or the amount spent to raise and train a slave to work; the cost of daily maintenance; the cost of capital depreciation over the slave's working life; the cost of life insurance premiums; and the costs of supervising the slave while he worked.[215] The rent earned by the slave's labour must be sufficient to cover these capital costs, otherwise the slave owner is faced with a capital loss rather than a profit. Each slave owner must be able to calculate these amounts and compare them with the market price for free labour, which is determined purely by the forces of supply and demand for labour in each locality. In Storch's view, the answer to the question, which form of labour was the most profitable, free or slave labour? could only be found by comparing the rent earned by a slave with the wages of a free worker.[216]
Storch's comparison of the costs of free and slave labour revealed that, in some areas of Russia slave labour was cheaper than free labour, in some cases the costs were the same (for example the cost of paying for food or raising a family), but that in most areas the reverse held true. On the demand side the forces acting to set the level of rent for slaves or wages for free labourers should have been the same, but Storch believes that this was not so. The free worker has to sell his labour, whereas the slave owner is not forced to rent out his slaves for hire. They could instead work on the owner's plantation. In addition, whereas anyone with sufficient funds could hire a free labourer, not just anyone could hire a slave gang. In many slave societies there were restrictions on who was entitled to use slave labour. It was usually reserved for a particular and rather small class of privileged individuals. Thus Storch concluded that slave owners exercised a kind of monopoly over the supply of labour which inevitably raised its price in comparison to free labour. The only exception to this rule were societies in which a sufficiently large number of free labourers existed side-by-side with slaves to compete with them and thus drive the price of labour down to a common level. This latter situation certainly did not exist in the Caribbean colonies (from which most of the English abolitionists and Say also got their historical examples) where the dominant form of labour was slave labour, but it did exist in the interior of Russia. In the provincial capitals of the Russian Empire the competition between slave and free labour was intense, unlike in the hinterland where slave labour had a virtual monopoly and where the cost of labour was much higher than in the towns. Storch cites the example, perhaps from personal experience, of the reluctance of rural slaves who came to work as labourers or domestics in St. Petersburg to accept the lower rates of pay brought about by the competition of crown serfs and free labourers. The cheaper cost of labour in the cities meant that it was here that industrialists preferred to set up new factories rather than in the countryside (as in England).[217] What made the difference between the two forms of labour were the economic incentives which existed to encourage efficient, productive and intelligent work. Basically, the costs of maintaining a slave in good health were higher than the equivalent costs of maintaining a free labourer. This was because the free labourer looked after himself and his family directly and had an obvious incentive to do this as economically and efficiently as possible. Slaves, on the other hand, were more likely to be poorly supervised and looked after, either because the master was distracted by his sumptuous existence or because he had delegated this responsibility to a negligent overseer. A second incentive which made slave labour less useful than free labour was the attitude of the slaves to their work. Slaves were more likely than free labourers to steal, to waste or damage materials and to be generally less than economical in their activity. Since the slave had no direct incentive to work well (other than to avoid punishment), he naturally did not.[218]
This unproductive attitude raised the level of rent which was required for the slave owner to break even on his investment. Slave labour was less productive because slaves both produced less in terms of quantity and what they did produce was of lower quality than free labourers. Storch described slave workers as "une mauvaise machine" which was stubborn and very difficult to operate.[219] Greater skill or dexterity was not rewarded, slaves felt no shame in doing a job poorly, they had no feeling of security that what extra they might be able to produce they would be allowed to keep, and the threat of physical punishment made them even less likely to cooperate. Perhaps the most damning criticism of the productivity of slavery Storch was able to come up with was the Smithian argument about the absence of incentives to innovate. Under the threat of force and with the insecurity of property they felt, slaves had no reason to think about how they might improve their work practices or to think up new methods of doing things. It is for this reason, the lack of incentives in slave labour, that Storch believed the economy of the ancient world had stagnated and was unable to begin the process of industrialisation.[220] Say, in one of his many critical notes to Storch's work, agreed with his assessment about the lack of industrial progress in the ancient world, but attributed it to reasons other than purely the existence of slave labour. Say believed the single most important handicap for industrial development in the ancient world was the prevalence of warfare. Like Benjamin Constant, Say argued that the political and economic structure of the ancient world was militaristic in nature. Military service was the most highly respected occupation and the accumulation of capital was made almost impossible with the constant "wars of extermination." What capital the Romans had been able to accumulate was the booty taken from those they had conquered.[221]
Not only is industry hit hard by the existence of slave labour, but also capital accumulation is hindered. This was a topic close to Storch's heart and a source of conflict with Say. One of Storch's main concerns was to discuss the problem of "national income," what was it composed of and how could it be maximised.[222] The difficulty with slave labour was that it did not encourage the slaves to contribute to the accumulation of "national income."[223] They had no interest or incentive to accumulate anything and what little they did have was held very insecurely since their master or his overseers could take it with impunity. This was another "cost" of the slave system when compared with the free labour system. Storch asks how slaves could contribute to the important task of adding to the national wealth when their security of possession was subject to the whim of their master, who could at any time deprive them of the fruits of their labour. He concludes, of course, that they cannot.[224] Thus Storch thought it was a mistake to view the ancient Romans as a wealthy nation, since only a very small group of land and slave owners controlled most of society's wealth, whilst the vast bulk of the population, the "nation," was in dire poverty. Storch considered this to be another severe criticism of the slave system, that it perpetuated such an unequal share of wealth.[225]
The innovation Storch brought to the debate on the economics of slavery was the discussion of what he called the "esclaves censitaires" or slaves who engage in freely paid work with the permission of their masters, on payment of a fee or "cens."[226] In addition to establishing a fixed fee or tax for the right of the slave to work independently of the master, the slave owner could also allow the slave to use part of his land, or he might provide the slave with some capital to begin a small business in manufacturing or commerce. In the latter cases there would also be a charge for rent or interest in addition to the fee or tax paid by the slave to his master. Storch was interested in this more moderate form of slavery, partly because of its widespread use in Russia, partly because he considered it to be an efficient way of ameliorating the worst economic consequences of forced labour, and partly because he thought it could be the best method of gradually abolishing slavery throughout the Western world.
Storch had four reasons why the "esclave censitaire" was a better and more efficient worker than the chattel slave. Firstly, the slave's labour is not as closely supervised and thus the slave's attitudes and behaviour more closely approach that of a free labourer or "at least creates in him the illusion" of being a free labourer.[227] Secondly, the esclave censitaire is able to engage in free labour, that is, he is able to choose his work and to carry it out according to his own interests. With the incentive of self interest now operating the slave can work hard and be inventive. Thirdly, now that the slave is in control of his work he has the incentive and the means to economise or cut costs and thus improve the efficiency of labour. Fourthly, in societies where there are few free labourers, such as Russia or the Caribbean colonies, the censitaire system provides an important source of labour for manufacturing or commercial enterprises which could not be done by chattel slaves. One of the assumptions behind Storch's advocacy of the censitaire slave system is that the rights and obligations of both parties must be recognised in law in order to protect the property produced by the slave from arbitrary seizure by the master. With some guarantee of security for the slave's property enough incentives are in place for the slave to begin the slow economic process of self-improvement.[228]
The situation of these kind of slaves in Russia was often better than that of many crown serfs, which lead some commentators to argue that perhaps it was better to be a slave than to be a serf. Storch explained this anomalous situation in terms of the economic incentives created by the various types of coerced labour which existed in Russia. Although nominally slaves of large landed proprietors, many "esclaves censitaires" lived a reasonably prosperous life in towns and villages pursuing their own trades. This arrangement was very good for the slave owner who benefited considerably from the "taxes" being paid by the slaves as a result of their relative economic freedom. By managing his slave's payments carefully he could maximise his return. On the other hand, the crown owned millions of serfs who were theoretically better off than many other serfs in Russia. However, Storch argued, they were exploited in a quite arbitrary way by petty government officials. Since the Tsar could not personally manage his slaves as many landowners could and did, the crown serfs were illegally at the mercy of the government officials put in charge of their welfare but who tricked and robbed the serfs of their rightful earnings.[229] But in those parts of Russia where the law protected the property rights of the censitaire slaves and where the depredations of government officials could be kept to a minimum, Storch believed the economic benefits of liberty, even within the institution of slavery, were to be seen.[230]
Turning to the situation in other parts of Europe, Storch was convinced of the superiority of free labour over slave labour. Russia was not a special case even though its variety of forms of slavery and coerced labour was greater than in any other country. Storch assembled a large number of examples of reforms which moderated the institution of slavery or serfdom and thus led to improvements in agricultural output as a result.[231] After having established to his satisfaction the inefficiency of slave labour in agriculture, Storch then turned to show how much more inefficient slave labour was in the area of manufacturing. Basically, Storch accused slavery of preventing the proper development of the division of labour which was so necessary, as Smith and Say argued, for the emergence of manufacturing. Some slave owners may introduce a rudimentary division of labour on the plantation and the result, Storch believed, might be a "feeble" increase in productivity. However this was impossible to achieve in industry because, unlike agriculture which to some extent was a result of the work of nature, industry was almost entirely the result of human ingenuity. Any improvements in industrial production had to come from the application of human intelligence and hard work, which Storch thought was entirely lacking in slave systems. He believed that free wage labourers showed their superiority over slaves most clearly in the modern industrial system and thus as industrialisation proceeded this difference would gradually become more obvious to all.[232]
Proof of this claim was provided by comparing the sophistication of the modern economy with that of slave societies, in particular the economies of the ancient world. This, of course, is an unfair comparison since the absence of various consumer goods such as clocks, glasses, paper and books or the high price of woven fabrics is not due to the existence of slavery as Storch argued. Yet it is important to his attack on slavery to maintain that the ancient Roman economy was backward or underdeveloped precisely because the existence of slavery prevented the division of labour from going past a certain primitive level and prevented the formation of a prosperous middle class to buy the goods made in the factories.[233] Storch dismissed the supposed wealth of the ancient world by claiming that a comfortably well-off inhabitant of a European town in the 1820s was much better off than most in the ancient world, bar the richest of the aristocrats. Whereas the wealth of modern Europe was the result of trade and industry, the narrowly based wealth of the Roman empire was less the result of industry than the product of war, the pillaging that war made possible, and of course slave labour. Not only were the benefits of industry beyond the reach of the Romans, but also commerce, and for much the same reasons. Expressing a critical attitude to the ancient world very similar to that of other liberals such as Comte, Dunoyer, Say and Constant, Storch believed that the ancient world should be condemned for stifling economic development for the benefit of a small minority of aristocratic slave owners. He argued that if war had not been so profitable the ancient Romans would have remained an impoverished nation, since they lacked "les arts industriels" which were making modern European nations and America so prosperous.[234]
Storch's philosophy of history placed great importance on the relationship between the decline of slavery and the rise of economic activity. In the feudal period the reasons for poor economic activity were similar to the problems faced by the ancient Romans. It was not until the "affranchissement des esclaves," as he termed it, that the economic situation of the average person began to improve.[235] The great take-off in European economic development did not occur until the complete abolition of serfdom and slavery. Storch described this as a "grande et bienfaisante révolution," as the "dawn" of all the great inventions and economic developments which have made life easier and more tolerable for all. The destructive effects of slavery were no longer widespread, but limited to only a few places such as the colonies in America and Eastern Europe. Like Say, Storch was optimistic for the future since he believed that the proximity of free societies would gradually undermine the stability of the few remaining slave societies. Already he thought slavery was less harsh and slaves in some societies had some, although certainly inadequate, legal protection from the arbitrary actions of their masters. But the greatest threat to slave societies was the much greater productive power of free labour in free societies. In comparing the relative economic strength of a selection of free and slave societies, Storch came to the not surprising conclusion that, compared to the United States and Ireland (a curious choice if we recall Dunoyer's attack on British policy towards the Irish peasants mentioned above), the economies of Russia, Poland, Hungary and Denmark had made feeble progress in industrial development. In all the economic categories he chose Storch found the slave/serf societies wanting, in population growth, level of exports, and per capita wealth.[236] He was particularly scathing about the lack of progress in Russia in spite of nearly one hundred and fifty years of state support and assistance. He found the level of the division of labour, investment in tools and equipment, and the quality of manufactured goods quite inadequate and he laid the blame at the feet of the slave system, concluding in fact that a sophisticated division of labour was incompatible with slave labour.[237] Storch had a high opinion of the potential of the Russian people and predicted great things for the Russian economy if slavery could be finally abolished.
The solution to the problem of slavery, Storch believed, could be found in the study of European history over the previous two or three centuries. Europe, according to the philosophy of history developed by Robertson and Smith, had evolved from a slave society into one based upon serfdom, and from there into a relatively free society in which labour was freely paid for. As discussed above, Storch believed that the "revolution" which had liberated the "tiers-état" in Europe could be repeated elsewhere, in Russia or in the Caribbean, without bloodshed. Storch called his chapter on the end of slavery "Comment l'esclavage s'abolit insensiblement dans l'Europe occidentale" and the key word in the title is "insensiblement." By this he meant the abolition of slavery and serfdom without too much disruption to life, liberty and property. It was possible, he thought, to persuade the more open-minded slave owners that it was in their interest to introduce free labour for the greater productivity this would create. However, this would be possible only if those slave owners were also convinced that abolition would take place in such a way that their situation and their fortune were left intact and their personal security was not harmed. It was in order to persuade the open-minded slave owner (one must include the two crown princes to whom Storch was teaching economics, with their vast land holdings which included serfs and slaves, in this group) that Storch used his historical example of the peaceful transition to free labour which he observed in western European history since the middle ages.[238]
Although historically "this great revolution"[239] had been restricted to the western part of Europe, Storch was optimistic that it could and would be extended to the Americas and to eastern Europe. Storch is supremely confident that this will inevitably happen as individual liberty becomes entrenched in European and North American society and exerts its inexorable and irresistible influence on neighbouring and less economically developed societies. He confidently predicted that
... the causes which have accelerated the extension of individual liberty in western Europe will not fail to produce sooner or later the same effect in the countries where slavery still exists. The ties which the barbarity of past centuries have created will be dissolved gradually by the natural progress of prosperity and the march of liberty, although slow, will be no less certain.[240]
To support his optimistic perception of the future Storch gives a long list of reforms of labour practices in Europe and America since the end of the eighteenth century. Slavery had been practically abolished in most of the provinces of the Austrian monarchy, the royal domains of Holstein and Denmark, Swedish Pomerania, the Prussian states, and the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. Slavery had been limited and manumission made easier in Hungary, Denmark, and Russia. The slave trade had been prohibited or restricted by the Spanish, Danish, Swedish, American, and British governments. Storch was impressed that so much progress had been made in such a short time and confidently predicted that by the end of the nineteenth century slavery would have disappeared entirely from the continent of Europe and the societies settled by Europeans.[241] Furthermore, in the societies just mentioned the process of abolition had not caused serious disruption to the social fabric, but had in fact led to all the salutary results of liberty: increase in population, industry, wealth and individual well-being. Storch concluded his lecture on slavery to the grand dukes by saying:
The evidence provided by the experience of our own time and by a quite large number of countries, in favour of the cause of humanity and justice ought to be sufficient to reassure the landowners and to assuage their fears. No aspect of public order will be troubled by even the immediate and general abolition of servitude. No part of the landowners' pecuniary interests will be damaged. In fact, their revenu will be increased, all the troubles and problems which are inseparable from the administration of slaves will come to an end, and they will be transformed from being fearful masters into respected masters.[242]
Under the influence of his debate with Adam Hodgson and Storch's extensive analysis of Russian serfdom Say rewrote the section dealing with the profitability of slave labour, doubling it in size from four to eight pages. His rewriting reveals how much of the arguments of Storch and Hodgson he had accepted and how much he had rejected. Interestingly, he continues to concentrate on the narrower argument about the level of payments for free and slave labour (using the example of the Antilles with the total cost of F500 as the annual cost to the owner of keeping a slave) rather than the systemic approach of Storch. But his reading of the literature of the "Society for Mitigating and Gradually Abolishing the State of Slavery" had led to doubts about the overall profitability of slave plantations. Whereas earlier he had confidently asserted that plantations in Santo Domingo were so profitable that they repaid their cost price within six years, he now argued that "thus it is probable that the profits from a sugar plantation have been somewhat exaggerated."[243]
But the greatest change in Say's thought was his outright dismissal of the Smithian argument about the profitability of slave labour as the most important factor working to protect or weaken the slave system in the colonies. Other external economic and moral factors intruded to undermine the viability of slavery. As he put it "everything has been altered"[244] and to discuss the morality and economic efficiency of slave labour in the colonies was less relevant than he had thought in his earlier editions of the Traité. He still condemned the morality of owning slaves, the way in which slavery depraved both the owner and the slave, and corrupted the virtues of "véritable industrie," but he now expanded an economic argument which he had used only sketchily in previous editions of the Traité. He now believed the most compelling fact was that the French slave colonies could not compete economically with other sugar producers in a state of free trade. If it were not for the protection offered by the almost exclusive monopoly the French sugar producers enjoyed in the metropolitan market, slavery would collapse regardless of the comparative profitability of slave labour compared to free labour.[245] Say did not discuss an obvious counter-argument to his change of emphasis in discussing the slave question. Even if the accounts of the profitability of slave labour were exaggerated, the profits (or political rents) might be high enough to enable the plantation owners to mount a formidable political campaign within metropolitan France to maintain the extensive system of tariff protection which alone made slave-produced sugar competitive with other suppliers.
Say also scoffed at the experiments made by "humanitarian" planters, such as Steele and Nottingham and touted by the "Society for Mitigating and Gradually Abolishing the State of Slavery" (as in Hodgson's Letter to Say), to improve the profitability of slavery by introducing some form of wage labour. Say argued that Steele's experiments were short-lived and not universally adopted and that the British slave colonies also faced formidable economic competition. Like their French counterparts, the British plantation owners also needed tariff protection to survive. Their behaviour in Parliament to maintain this protection was proof to Say of the economic vulnerability of slave-produced colonial products.
The argument used by Hodgson and Storch of the gradual evolution in Europe away from serf labour towards paid free labour was rejected by Say because he thought the European experience was not applicable in the tropics. The climate was too harsh and the cultivation of sugar too back-breaking to enable free European labour to flourish. Black workers, on the other hand, were not ambitious enough and had too few "needs" to be satisfied to make freely paid labour viable. The example of free black labour in Haiti suggested to Say that there were serious problems to be faced by emancipation. Labour continued to be forced in Haiti even after abolition, with blacks required by law to be supervised and severe penalties for poor work were imposed. The result was that the production of sugar in Haiti cost more than in neighbouring islands, the proof of which was the extensive smuggling that went own because of the disparities in prices for these commodities.[246]
Ultimately however, Say reverts to moral and political arguments with which to condemn slavery, thus side-stepping to some extent the debate begun by Hodgson about the economics of slave labour vis-à-vis free wage labour. He thought it was more important to discuss another question concerning the longer-term moral and political consequences of slavery (or as he phrased it "at what price can on make a man work without harming justice and humanity"), than to debate the issue raised by Hodgson.[247] Perhaps recognising the fact that Hodgson had, to all intents and purposes, won the debate, Say was forced into general moral protestations about slavery which no liberal or abolitionist would have contested. Rather feebly himself, he accused his opponents of being "faibles calculateurs" for placing so much emphasis on force rather than on the issue of equity. However, it can be seen that Hodgson and Storch had had some effect on Say's thinking, forcing him to confront the problem of the economics of slave labour, to reject his simplistic approach of using only the case of very high prices for free labour in the French Antilles upon which to base his entire argument, to force him to resort to the quite powerful "external" argument about the necessity of slave societies of relying upon tariff protection to maintain their markets in the metropole, and to develop the sociological distinction between the two quite different methods of acquiring wealth (by force or by trade) which Comte and Dunoyer were to take up as a major plank of their social theory in the mid and late 1820s. On the one hand, there was the wealth produced by industrious activity through the market which Say described as the sole legitimate means of wealth acquisition.[248] On the other hand, there was the acquisition of wealth by force, whether by enslavement, feudal obligations, taxation or tariffs. With respect to the acquisition of wealth by means of slave labour, Say concluded his discussion by likening slave owners to a band of Bedouin robbers who seize a caravan of goods with little cost to themselves. This was a comparison which Comte was to adopt as the central issue in his analysis of slavery in the Traité de législation, where Comte was to repeat Say almost word for word in his rejection of the traditional Smithian formulation of the problem of slave labour.[249]