442 Slaves as wage-earners 



ground. Unskilled labour on the other hand was generally despised. 

 It was as a matter of course chiefly performed by slaves. If a citizen 

 was compelled by want to hire out his bodily strength, this was not 

 voluntary : complete submission to another's will, even for a short time, 

 made the relation on his part virtually servile. Accordingly philo- 

 sophers, when they came to discuss such topics, came to the con- 

 clusion that the need of such unskilled labour proved slavery to be 

 'according to nature,' a necessary appliance of human society. 

 When the Stoic defined a slave as a lifelong hireling, he gave 

 sharp expression to what had long been felt as a true analogy. For, 

 if the slave was a lifelong hireling, the hireling must be a temporary 

 slave. Romans could borrow the thought, but with them practice had 

 preceded theory. 



In making comparisons between wage-earning ancient and modern 

 we come upon a difficulty which it is hardly possible to set aside or 

 overcome. A slave could be hired from his owner, just as a freeman 

 could be hired from himself. The difference between the two cases 

 would be clearly marked 1 in the modern world, and language would 

 leave no room for misunderstanding. But many passages in ancient 

 writers leave it quite uncertain whether the hirelings referred to are 

 free or slave. The point is an important one, particularly to inquirers 

 who attempt to estimate the relative economic efficiency of free and 

 slave labour. For the immediate interest of the freeman is to get 

 a maximum of wage for a minimum of work : the ultimate interest of 

 the hired slave was often to improve his own prospect of manumission. 

 The custom was to allow the slave to retain a small portion of his wage. 

 Now this stimulus to exertion was manifestly to the interest of the 

 employer, who may even have made it a part of his bargain with the 

 owner. The slave, alive to the chance of laying up a little store for the 

 eventual purchase of his freedom, was induced to work well in order 

 to be kept employed on these terms. The owner drew a steady income 

 from his capital sunk in slaves, and the system was thus convenient to 

 all parties. We may add that, by causing a slave to take thought for 

 his own future, this plan encouraged him to take reasonable care of 

 his own health, and so far retarded his progressive deterioration as an 

 investment ; while his owner stood to recover the slave's hoarded wage- 

 portion in the form of redemption-money on manumission of his worn- 

 out slave. There is reason to think that slave labour under these 

 conditions was often more efficient than free. Unhappily we have no 

 direct discussion of the question from ancient observers, who did not 



(Athen VI 264 d), where free Phocians object to slaves taking their employment, refers solely 

 to domestic and personal attendance. 



1 Of this there is abundant American evidence from writers on Slavery. The hired slave 

 sometimes got a higher wage than the hired freeman. 



