476 INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



of property was recognized by law in special cases, joined 

 with a partial right of bequest. 



Along with the gradually-established ability to possess, 

 there presently came the ability to purchase freedom. Even 

 among the despotic and sanguinary Mexicans this hap 

 pened. &quot; Slaves were allowed to many and to possess 

 private property, by means of which they often liberated 

 themselves. From a statement concerning Madagascar, 

 where sometimes slaves are entrusted with capital and 

 started in trade, we may infer a similar usage: &quot; half the 

 amount of profit obtained is allowed to the slave &quot; ; and if 

 so, a possible purchase of liberty seems implied. In ancient 

 Greece, too, a slave s acquired property enabled him by 

 agreement to buy his freedom. Similarly in Rome, the pecu - 

 Hum could be thus applied, at first by agreement and in 

 later times by law: manumission eventually becoming so 

 common that it was put under legal restriction. But while 

 giving the slave his freedom in return for his peculium was 

 common, the freedom was not at first absolute. The liber 

 ated slave remained a client, and in various ways subject to 

 his former master. 



Bondage has been otherwise qualified by an arrangement 

 under which the bondman carries on some occupation inde 

 pendently, and gives his owner a portion of the proceeds. 

 Already we have seen that this happens in Madagascar. So 

 in Athens, &quot; the slave artisans who worked singly, handed 

 over to their master a definite contribution out of their earn 

 ings, and retained the rest themselves.&quot; Or, as the matter is 

 put by Becker 



&quot; Of the fifty to one thousand slaves that are mentioned as the pro 

 perty of one master, the majority were employed as artisans, either for 

 their master, or on their own account, paying him a daily sum. . . . 

 The Greeks looked on their slaves as a capital yielding interest.&quot; 



This usage, which practically made the slave pay rent for his 

 body, clearly indicated a process of detachment. The slave s 

 condition was much that of a free man paying heavy taxes. 



