SLAVERY AND ECONOMIC TOUGHT. JOSIAH TUCKER AND ADAM SMITH

SLAVERY AND ECONOMIC TOUGHT. JOSIAH TUCKER AND ADAM SMITH Oana-Maria COZMA Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iași, Romania, [email protected] Abstract Slavery is considered to be the action through wich some people dominate and exploit other people in order to gain different benefits. From an economic standpoint, there is a general debate about whether or not slavery was a source of economic growth for world’s most developed countries. The purpose of this paper is to underlinde how economists, namely Josiah Tucker and Adam Smith, perceived slavery in the eighteenth century. The key findings of this paper show that both Josiah Tucker and Adam Smith opposed slavery and the exploitation of slaves' workforce. Their perspectives and explanations, however, differed. On the one hand, in the case of Josiah Tucker, he attempted to highlight the hypocrisy of their contemporaries who fought for liberty and equality while being slaveholders or tied to slavery. On the other hand, Adam Smith's arguments against slavery were more economically motivated. He has attempted to persuade people to give up the system of slavery as slave labor was inefficient and costly in relation to free labor. In conclusion, economists have long held strong views on the institution of slavery, questioning its morality as well as its efficacy. Keywords: Slavery, Economic Thought, Eighteenth Century, Josiah Tucker, Adam Smith. 1. INTRODUCTION Slavery has always been a controversial subject in academia, with experts attempting to explain why and how individuals were able to completely dominate other people. Slavery represents the act of exploitation and abuse where a group of individuals objectifies another group of people. This act of injustice was omnipresent in humanity’s history; for example, Ancient Greece and Rome were slave-states where slavery was a well-embedded part, and an influential institution of those past societies. On one side, in Ancient Greece, slavery was justified by a very well-known thinker, namely, Aristotle. He defended natural slavery on the basis of intellectual grounds, stating that slaves, unlike free individuals, lack normative intelligence (Garnsey, 1996; Brunt, 1993; Charles River Editors, 2016). On the other side, in Ancient Rome, slavery was legitimated by law. More precisely, the Roman Law distinguished between free and slave individuals (Buckland, 1970; Hunt, 2018). The most prominent characteristic in determining slaves' status was subordination to the master (Buckland, 1970; Bradley, 1987) and slaves' state as objects, forms of propriety, and lack of honor (McKeown, 2011; Patterson, 1982). Even if this act of exploitation and abuse may be traced back to ancient times, we must proceed with caution because the data provided is limited and does not present a clear image of slavery in Ancient Greece and Rome (McKeown, 2011). Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade provide a large arena of debate for the discussion of slavery. The Transatlantic Slave Trade could be said to have begun with the Age of Exploration and the development of Western civilizations; nevertheless, there is less of a correlation between this form of slavery and the Scientific Revolution (Black, 2015). Besides the connection between The Transatlantic slavery and the development of Western civilizations, The Transatlantic Slave Trade is considered the largest forced transoceanic migration from humanity’s history (Eltis & Richardson, 2008). Throughout this process, the American continent was populated with African people who were forced to work for the benefit and the creation of European quality of life (Burnard, 2011). It's also worth noting that the slave trade on the African continent was widespread prior to European engagement in transatlantic slavery; specifically, Muslims in North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa traded African slaves for the first time outside the continent (Anderson, 2008). The Transatlantic Slave Trade as we know it today began in 1400 with the entrance of Portuguese explorers and merchants in the Sub-Saharan Africa (Klein, 2010). The Spaniards, Dutch, English, and French followed the Portuguese; the British and French dominated and controlled about half of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (Lewis, 2021). The Transatlantic Slave Trade is highly relevant in discussions concerning racism and discrimination. The Afro-American community, particularly in the United States of America, continues to face prejudice and injustice. 1 Modern slavery, racism, injustice, discrimination, and prejudice are all manifestations of past slavery. This brings us to the purpose of this paper, which is to highlight eighteenth-century economists' perspectives on slavery. Slavery was considered a normal part of society in the eighteenth century, and being a slave owner was a popular occupation; moreover, slaves were seen as less than human beings. The view that slavery was an institution, a natural component of past societies, is based on these former conventional practices and beliefs about slavery. However, when we look at the work of Josiah Tucker and Adam Smith, we can see that even when slavery was considered normal, there were voices who claimed that it was unnatural and that it should be abolished. Therefore, it's critical to bring these types of less popular ideas to public attention in order to hold entities involved in past slavery accountable, to avoid modern slavery, and reduce racism and discrimination. 2. SLAVERY AND ECONOMICS Even though slavery appears to be a topic connected more to history, sociology, or psychology at first glance, it is important to note that slavery is also an important issue in the field of economics. Slavery, for example, is significant to the study of earlier economic development of today's world's great powers. Slavery is also important in economics since it depicts trading patterns and negotiations at the beginning of international commerce. Taking into consideration the purpose of the present paper, slavery is relevant in the field of economics because it provides a ground to illustrate two economits’ view on a profitable activity of past societies. Moreover, economist’s view will to demonstrate that even when the institution of slavery was common, there were still voices who argued against it. In the case of Ancient Greece, despite the fact that it lacked an uniform Greek economy due to the absence of a universal Greek society, the system of slavery had a significant economic influence on the Ancient Greece territory (Wiedemann, 1981; Cartledge, 2002). Therefore, inside the Greek society, slaves have represented an important part of the available workforce, being involved in different agricultural and industrial activities, as well, as in domestic duties (Schlaifer, 1968). The great thinker Socrates mentions several ways through which Greek citizens could achieve financial gains exclusively throughout slave’s workforce: (1) owing a large farm (where the entire labour was undertaken by slaves); (2) owing housing in order to be rented (tipically, these types of housing were offering accommodation to temporary residents, but also they represented brothels for prostituted slaves); (3) owing slaves craftsmen (many workshops were based on slaves’ workforce, and some of them were even managed by trustworthy and highly skilled slaves) (Cartledge, 2002). As previously mentioned, even though Ancient Greece have not had an unanimous economy and political economy, the elites have analyzed the economic rationality in a modern manner in order to maximize their profits; for this reason, the wealthy people of the Greek society comprehended the profit that slaves’ workforce could provide (Finley, 1999). Slaves represented a major form of financial benefits for Greek citizens who owned them, however, it must be borne in mind the fact that when studying the profitability and the political economy of slave’s workforce, there appears a lack of quantifiable ancient data in this regard (Cartledge, 2002). Taking the example of The Transatlantic Slave Trade, it is an important subject in the debate over slavery and its profitability. There is an interesting view over Transatlantic slavery’s profitability which claims the fact that slavery was not bornt out of racism, but because of economic reasons; hence, racism was defined by slavery's economic interests (Williams, 1944). With access to the African continent, Europeans noticed black people’s qualities regarding their workforce; Africans were more resistant, more docile and had a superior work capacity (Basset, 1896). Compared to white servants, who were working based on a contract, and to America's indigenous populations, who were less enduring, black Africans represented the best option to work on American plantations. As a consequence, due to economic reasons, Europeans preferred African slaves since they were cheaper and more profitable (Walsh, 2011). It can be said that slaves were simply treated as forms of capital and perceived as a production function; this function should be understood as slaves entries and necessary materials in order to support slaves in the harvesting of agricultural crops and to support the production of slave labor (Tomich, 2004). On one side, there are specialists who claim that slavery and the unlimited slave labor played a crucial role in the socio-economic development of Western European countries (Williams, 1944; Baptist, 2014; Beckert, 2014; Johnson, 2013). More exactly, the phenomenon of industrialization was not fated to the West due to a specific market orientation 2 embedded in Western cultural genetics, but because industrialization took place as a consequence of the manual agricultural labor that slaves were forced to performe (Baptist, 2016). On the other hand, other experts contend that slavery and slave labor were not economically efficient in Western European countries (Smith, 1776; Wright, 1986; Olmstead & Rhode, 2018). The most prevalent argument that slave labor did not genuinely provide such significant economic benefits as to propel Western countries into massive socio-economic growth relates to the fact that purchasing slaves is not cheap; on the contrary, purchasing slaves is an expensive economic action (Smith, 1776). 3. METHODOLOGY The present paper presents one purpose: to investigate two eighteenth century economits’ views on slavery, namely Josiah Tucker and Adam Smith. It is necessary to address the issue of phenomenon, as past slavery is still having repercussions on nowadays societies. The most obvious repercussions are represented by racism, discrimination, and modern slavery. In order to accomplish the purpose of this paper, it has been used a qualitative research method, namely content analysis. Through the medium of content analysis it has been undertaken an analysis of Josiah Tucker and Adam Smith’s works where the two economists approached the issue of slavery. Therefore, there will be presented their positions towards slavery, which was a normal and legal part of the societies they have lived in. 4. JOSIAH TUCKER Dean Josiah Tucker, an economist, politician, and eighteenth century Welsh clergyman, supported the idea of free trade, according to which international trade should be harmonious, and it should oppose the warfare determined by economic reasons (Rees & Jenkins, 1959). Besides his opinions related to economics, the Welsh economist was also interested in the emancipation of the Jews, and the American Independence (Rees & Jenkins, 1959). Even though his position in the historical period he lived in may determine us to perceive him as a mercantilist, Tucker's economic arguments foreshadowed the current of thought initiated by the father of modern economics, Adam Smith (The History of Economic Thought). In his paper, Treatise Concerning Civil Government in Three Parts (1781), Tucker analyzed the beginnings of the transatlantic slave trade, first mentioning the conquering nations' relationship with the Amerindians. He emphasized the fact that every European nation which has waged wars with Native Americans has tried to use prisoners in order to force them into various works and servitudes (Tucker, 1781). What they all noticed was that the Amerindians were not fit to do hard physical work because they were not physically and spiritually constructed in this way. Taking this into consideration, Tucker argued that African slavery arose out of these considerations (Tucker, 1781). Further, as the profitability and advantages of buying slaves off the coast of Africa and transporting them to the territories of the Americas were observed, the European nations established what we know today as Transatlantic Slavery. Tucker’s view on the practice and institution of slavery materialized in a position which was situated on slave’s side, namely, in his opinion, slavery represented in reality countless crimes and calamities for millions of friend-creatures bornt in a different part of the Earth. Moreover, there was a fight against the black people of Africa, as they would not have had the right to life and liberty as Native Americans or white Europeans had (Tucker, 1781). Josiah Tucker was against slavery and he truly believed that no person is born a slave, more precisely, no one is born as the subject of another person (Pocock, 1985; Harris, 2019). He manifested his position against slavery through the criticism he brought to different important contemporary personalities who actively militated for the rights and equality of all people, but, at the same time, they were owning plantations and slaves. Due to their relationship to the institution of slavery, John Locke, Andrew Fletcher, and George Washington were among those criticized by Tucker (McBride & Dawson, 2020). For example, John Locke was an English philosopher and politician, known for his work in which he advocated for the freedom, equality and rights of all people (Uzgalis, 2017). Nevertheless, Locke owned shares in slave trading companies and was the secretary of the Lords of Carolina Ownership, a territorial formation in which slavery was constitutional (Uzgalis, 2017). In the same manner, President George Washington, a pillar of American Independence, was simultaneously the owner of plantations and slaves; Washington owned plantations that relied on the latest 3 agricultural practices, and at the same time relied on the work of African slaves (Morgan, 2000). As a result, Tucker argued that it was better to be under the absolute monarchies of France or Denmark or to be a vassal of a Polish Grandee than to be a slave on a plantation in Jamaica (Tucker, 1781; McBride & Dawson, 2020). What Tucker set out to do through his work was to expose the hypocrisy of personalities who preached freedom and equality, but who also were slaves owners and involved in the transatlantic slave trade (McBride & Dawson, 2020). 5. ADAM SMITH Adam Smith was an eighteenth century Scottish economist, philosopher, and politician who is considered the father of modern economy. He represented an important figure within Scottish Illuminism and his work is well-known as he introduced in the economic theory the laissez-faire concept; according to this concept, free markets tend to self-regulate without government interference. Smith’s most important works are The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). Adam Smith had the unique opportunity to witness the involvement of the world's greatest powers in the Transatlantic Slave Trade given the historical period during which he lived. Smith argued against the institution of slavery, and his work is believed to have inspired the abolitionist wave that spread inside the British Empire. The Scottish economist did not agree with the practice of slavery, and in his two works mentioned previously, brought arguments against this institution and the use of slave workforce. Due to the fact that he was an economist, philosopher, and politician, the arguments he used to position himself against slavery were both moral-philosophical and economic in nature. In both The Theory of Moral Sentiments and the An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Smith points out a number of issues related to African slaves and their condition under the institution of slavery. He mentions the miserable situation in which slaves find themselves because their lives and property are ruled by someone else, and their freedom, if it exists for them, is not at their disposal (Smith, 1776). Smith further emphasizes that slavery places slaves in a more than unhappy status, which should not be demonstrated in any way because it is obvious (Smith, 1776). Referring to the African slaves in the colonies of European powers involved in Transatlantic Trade, the Scottish economist mentioned that they were in a much worse situation than the poorest people in Scotland or Ireland (Smith 1776). The effectiveness of the slave work force is a major point of contention in Adam Smith's economic arguments against slavery. Smith perpetuated the idea that slave workforce has always been much more expensive than free labor because slaves had no incentive to increase their own productivity (Smith, 1776). As slaves were entirely subject to their masters, they did not have the opportunity to experience the freedom and security necessary to enjoy the results of their labor (Smith, 1776). Adam Smith's position on the low productivity of slave-based labor was often contradicted by the example of sugar cane plantations’ success in the Caribbean (Salter, 1996). In response to this argument, Smith argued that the profits from this activity were artificially kept above normal prices due to economic policies governing international trade in the colonies (Salter, 1996). Specifically, the high profitability of sugar cane plantations in the colonies was in fact a consequence of the trade and production monopolies held by the colonizing powers (Salter, 1996; Smith, 1776). Taking into consideration that Adam Smith argued against the immorality and, in particular, the economic inefficiency of slavery, he also tried to find a number of explanations to justify the persistence of this institution in the society in which he lived. A first argument Smith uses refers to a psychological dimension; more precisely, he explains the fact that people, generally those who own slaves, have a peculiarity that can be transposed by the love of domination (Smith, 1762-63; Weingast, 2015). Even though slavery and the slave-based labor force are inefficient and unprofitable, slaveholders prefer to satisfy this love of domination and, therefore, the do not give up the institution of slavery (Weingast, 2015). Another explanation Smith finds for the persistence of slavery is based on economic reasons; slavery continues to exist because if attempts were made to abolish it, problems would arise in compensating those who held slaves (Smith, 1762-63; Weingast, 2015). Even if the slave workforce is inefficient compared to the free labor force, the abolition of slavery would place slave holders at a disadvantage in terms of profitability; they prefer the inefficiency of slave labor to its total lack of slavery (Weingast, 2015). Furthermore, because individuals with the political power to abolish slavery were either slave owners or had connections with slave owners, the abolition of slavery was constantly impeded (Smith, 1762-63; Weingast, 2015). 4 Adam Smith has long been valued for his position against slavery, and one of the effects of his ideas has been to help shape and perpetuate the abolitionist current developed within the British Empire (Swaminathan, 2007). Nevertheless, there are specialists who disagreed with the ideas Smith put forward (Wakefield, 1849; Williams, 1944); for example, one of the criticisms refers to the fact that when the slave-based labor force is adopted there is no alternative to the free labor force (Williams, 1944). This critique illustrates that Europe, with a relatively small population, did not have enough manpower to grow large quantities of sugar, cotton, or tobacco in the New World to allow for large-scale production and trade (Williams, 1944). Therefore, Adam Smith's argument that the free workforce was more efficient and profitable than the slave labor force was not valid in the reality of the society he lived. 6. CONCLUSIONS Slavery is a matter of interest because it influences a range of concerns in contemporary society. Ones of slavery's most enduring legacies are the numerous types of modern slavery, prejudice, discrimination and racism, all this generating ongoing interest in the issue. Apart from the various challenges slavery causes in modern society, its study is also important as entities engaged in previous slave related activities should be held accountable for their actions. Accountability, on the other hand, is required in order to heal a history that has had harmful implications for certain groups in the present. The key findings of this paper show that both Josiah Tucker and Adam Smith opposed slavery and the exploitation of slaves' workforce. Their perspectives and explanations, however, differed. On the one hand, in the case of Josiah Tucker, he attempted to highlight the hypocrisy of their contemporaries who fought for liberty and equality while being slaveholders or tied to slavery. On the other hand, Adam Smith's arguments against slavery were more economically motivated. He has attempted to persuade people to give up the system of slavery as slave labor was inefficient and costly in relation to free labor. In conclusion, economists have long held strong views on the institution of slavery, questioning its morality as well as its efficacy even when this phenomenon was considered normal and acceptable. References [1] Anderson, J. N. D. (2008). Islamic Law in Africa (Volume 12). Routledge. [2] Baptist, E. E. (2014). The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism. Basic Books. [3] Baptist, E. E. (2016). Toward a Political Economy of Slave Labor: Hands, Whipping- Machines, and Modern Power. În Beckert S., & Rockman S. (Eds.), Slavery’s Capitalism. 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