Slavery and Free Markets

"If you men will take no pay, then none of us will."
--Col Robert Gould Shaw (Glory)

Robert Murphy posits that in a society with strict property rights, market forces would dismantle slavery even if society perversely began with a law that enabled one human being to own another.

The primary reason is that slavery becomes uncompetitive as entrepreneurs innovate and improve productivity.

Mises claimed that "if one treats men as cattle, one cannot squeeze out of them more than cattle-like performances." To compete with other producers that employ free labor who are incented to improve productivity, slave owners must free their labor or lose ground in the marketplace.

It is the spectre of economic pain, argued Mises, that "has made all systems of compulsory labor ultimately disappear."

Murphy observes that slaves have no motivation to produce above bare minimum standards that avoid punishment. As competition grows from free labor, slaveholders may be tempted to raise the minimum standard and punish workers who do not meet it. But as the bar goes up more slaves will be punished and at some point physical punishments will hurt the health of slaves, thereby impairing slaveholders' primary 'assets.'

Market forces will compel slaveholders to offer workplace incentives to boost productivity and competitiveness. As incentives increase, so does freedom. Over time, slavery dissolves in favor of self-ownership that promotes voluntary cooperation and exchange.

Aside from moral considerations, market forces are likely to transform slaves into self-owners because self-ownership enables the most efficient economic outcome.