The question of Slavery 7 



cannot be treated in separate compartments and their reciprocal effect 

 ignored. That in the later stages of my inquiry Oriental influences 

 begin to dominate Roman imperial policy, is evident, and I have not 

 left this factor out of account. But this phenomenon announces the 

 end of the old world. The long struggle of the Empire in the East and 

 its final overthrow by the forces of Islam, its break-up in the West and 

 the foundation of new nation-states, are beyond my range. In the 

 Appendix I have put some remarks on two documents of the Byzan- 

 tine period, from which we get glimpses of changes that were proceeding 

 in the eastern empire while it still held its ground and was indeed the 

 most highly organized of existing powers. To these I have subjoined 

 a list of some of the books I have consulted and found helpful in various 

 degrees, particularly such as have furnished modern illustrations in the 

 way of analogy or survival. A few special quotations from some of 

 these may serve to shew how very striking such illustrations can be. 



II. LAND AND LABOUR. 



Of the many difficult questions connected with the past history of 

 the human race few have evoked such a difference of opinion as the 

 practical importance of slavery. By some inquirers it has been held 

 that the so-called 'classical' civilization of the Greco-Roman world 

 rested upon a slavery basis, in short that slavery alone enabled that 

 civilization to follow the lines of its actual development. In reply to 

 this doctrine it is urged 1 that its holders have been led astray by an 

 unhistorical method. They have been deeply impressed by the all- 

 pervading evils of the economic and domestic slave-system during the 

 period (say 200 BC-2OO AD roughly) when it was in full extension 

 and vigour. The prepossession thus created has led them to misinterpret 

 the phenomena of earlier ages, and to ignore the significance of the 

 later period of decline. Prejudiced eyes have detected slavery where 

 it was not, and have seen in it where existent an importance greater 

 than impartial inquiry will justify. Moreover the discussion of slavery- 

 questions in modern times, conducted with the intemperate warmth of 

 partisan controversy, have had an influence unfavourable to the state- 

 ment of facts in their true relations, and therefore to the exercise of 

 cool judgment. According to this view the facts of our record shew 

 that, while slave-labour had its four centuries or so of predominance, 

 free-labour never ceased, and on it, and not on slavery, the civilization 

 of the 'classical' world was built up. It is argued that in primitive con- 

 ditions there was little slavery, that growth of trade and exchange (and 



1 See especially Ed Meyer Kieine Schriften pp 80-212. 



