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> From an economical standpoint, the emancipation in the West Indies and the general abolishment of slavery was a failure for Britain That seems a bit light as
by roenxi 2y ago
> From an economical standpoint, the emancipation in the West Indies and the general abolishment of slavery was a failure for Britain
That seems a bit light as sources go and I suggest someone is misinterpreting the data. The slave owners are obviously going to be worse off in the short term. They used to have slaves, now they have to do the work themselves or pay for it. That much is pretty straightforward to see.
The issue is the slave owners are stuck in a local maximum where their society will be overwhelmed by the superior productivity of non-slave owning societies. There is a reason that none of the economic majors today are interested in re-instituting slavery - it is inefficient. The sort of thing you wish upon your enemies so that they can't challenge you. You'll note that after avoiding emancipation because of economic fears ... the economy of the South was then beaten up much worse than what happened to Britain! Which is what exactly what we'd expect to happen to the sort of state that commits to a system of slavery in a big way. It isn't going to be able to maintain a military edge.
- eesmith 2y agoThe British slave owners received cash compensated from the government for taking their 'property'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_Compensation_Act_1837 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_Compensation_Act_1837 says 'The 1837 Act paid substantial amount of money constituting 40% of the Treasury’s tax receipts at the time to the former slave owners, but nothing to the liberated people.' The British government didn't pay off that debt until 2015. While it sounds like you think the slave owners didn't get enough short-term compensation? And don't just sob over the slavers. If the former slaves had gotten real and effective compensation, it would have been even more an economical failure for Britain. > re-instituting slavery - it is inefficient Please note that there are many types of non-free labor besides chattel slavery. I consider the penal labor system in the US a legalized form of slavery, while there are many who support it.
- WalterBright 2y agoIt's a lot cheaper to pay off the slave owners than incur the deaths of 620,000 young men.
- eesmith 2y agoI have no clue what you are talking about. There were only 40,000 or so awards to slave owners, and I suspect most of them were not young men. Nor were the British slaves only young men.