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>Why build machines at great scale when there is so much almost free human labor? Slaves weren't free. At least in the early United States, slaves were consid

>Why build machines at great scale when there is so much almost free human labor? Slaves weren't free. At least in the early United States, slaves were considered a significant investment; only rich plantation (land) owners could afford them. If they were cheap, then everyone would have had one. Here's an interesting article about the topic: https://www.measuringworth.com/slavery.php https://www.measuringworth.com/slavery.php A typical slave in the US in the early 1800s cost several hundred dollars, which in today's dollars is between $60k and $184k. Obviously, this isn't something typical people can afford. I'm not sure if slaves were this expensive back in ancient Greek or Roman times, but I suspect it probably wasn't that different. Industrialization would have completely changed the economics of these places.

orbital-decay 2y ago
>I'm not sure if slaves were this expensive back in ancient Greek or Roman times, but I suspect it probably wasn't that different. The price fluctuated heavily. After a successful conquest slaves were way more affordable. Generally, a lot of people were able to afford slaves, so it was cheaper on average too. It was also place-dependent, compare for example Athens where roughly half of the population was free, and Sparta, where most of the population was enslaved. And of course even when slaves were expensive, most economically important labor was done by them anyway.
- throwawayffffas 2y ago
  Your point still stands, but as a note in Sparta slaves were state property, not individually owned.
  - shiroiushi 2y ago
    If the slaves in Sparta far outnumbered the native population of Spartans, what exactly kept them from revolting and taking over? Was it just because the Spartans were all trained as warriors?
api 2y ago
That's... wild. I had no idea it was that expensive. So ten slaves roughly equaled the price of one used medium to large scale combine: https://www.machinerypete.com/harvesting/combines https://www.machinerypete.com/harvesting/combines My point though was about the early days. There were no machines like that available, just slaves and animals. As long as there were slaves was there an incentive to develop this level of mechanization?

orbital-decay 2y ago

>I'm not sure if slaves were this expensive back in ancient Greek or Roman times, but I suspect it probably wasn't that different. The price fluctuated heavily. After a successful conquest slaves were way more affordable. Generally, a lot of people were able to afford slaves, so it was cheaper on average too. It was also place-dependent, compare for example Athens where roughly half of the population was free, and Sparta, where most of the population was enslaved. And of course even when slaves were expensive, most economically important labor was done by them anyway.

throwawayffffas 2y ago
Your point still stands, but as a note in Sparta slaves were state property, not individually owned.
- shiroiushi 2y ago
  If the slaves in Sparta far outnumbered the native population of Spartans, what exactly kept them from revolting and taking over? Was it just because the Spartans were all trained as warriors?

api 2y ago

That's... wild. I had no idea it was that expensive. So ten slaves roughly equaled the price of one used medium to large scale combine: https://www.machinerypete.com/harvesting/combines https://www.machinerypete.com/harvesting/combines My point though was about the early days. There were no machines like that available, just slaves and animals. As long as there were slaves was there an incentive to develop this level of mechanization?