2 Crude labour 



are for the most part silent witnesses to the ruthless employment of 

 forced labour, either that of captives or bought slaves or that of the 

 impressed subjects of an autocrat. Mere brute force, applied in un- 

 limited quantity 1 with callous indifference to the sufferings of the toilers, 

 was the chief means at disposal : mechanical invention had got so far 

 as to render possible some tasks that without it could not have been 

 performed at all. It gave extended effect to the mass of forced labour, 

 and there it stopped, for we have no reason to think that it improved 

 the labourer's lot. The surviving evidence as to the condition 2 of slaves 

 in mines and factories enables us to form some faint notion of the human 

 wastage resulting from the cruel forced-labour system. We may then 

 state the position briefly thus : to attempt great enterprises was only 

 possible through the crude employment of labour in great masses: the 

 supply of this labour was, or appeared to be, procurable only by com- 

 pulsion: and compulsion was operative through the institution of slavery 

 or the passive submission of cowed populations to the will of despots. 

 But if slavery promoted large-scale enterprise, surely large-scale enter- 

 prise tended to establish slavery in the form of forced labour more 

 firmly than ever. In the modern world the necessity of employing free 

 labour has stimulated scientific invention, in mechanical and other 

 departments, the tendency of which is to require greater intellectual 3 

 development in the labourer, and in the long run to furnish him with 

 effective means of asserting his own freedom. 



Under modern conditions, the gradual displacement of small handi- 

 craftsmen by the growth of great capitalistic combinations is going 

 on, perhaps not always for good. The public accept this result as fate. 

 And, if economy in production and prime-cost cheapness are the only 

 things worth considering, it is not easy to condemn the process. But 

 events are steadily demonstrating the fear once entertained, that 

 handworkers in general would find their position weakened thereby, 

 to be groundless. If the independent craftsman has lost ground, the 

 wage-earning journeyman has gained. We need not follow out this 

 topic in detail, but note the contrast presented by the ancient world. 

 The ' small man ' in crafts and trades was able to hold his own, for 

 without steam-power the capitalist was not strong enough to suppress 

 him. In a small way he was something of a capitalist himself, and 

 commonly owned slave-apprentices. His part in ancient civilization 

 was undoubtedly far more important than it appears in literature: for 

 he ministered to the ordinary needs of every day, while literature, then 



1 A good specimen of such work at a late date may be found in Statius Silvae iv 3 on the 

 via Domitiana lines 40-66. 



2 For instance Diodorus v 38 i, Strabo xn 3 40 (p 562), Apuleius met ix 12. 



3 Not artistic, of course. 



