Trade, slavery, and state coercion of labor: Egypt during the first globalization era

Mohamed Saleh

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: I investigate the effects of trade on labor coercion under the dual-coercive institutions of slavery and state coercion. Employing novel data from Egypt, I document that the cotton boom in 1861–1865 increased both imported slaveholdings of the rural middle class, and state coercion of local workers by the elite. As state coercion reduced wage employment, it reinforced the demand for slaves among the rural middle class. While the abolition of slavery in 1877 increased wages, it did not affect state coercion or wage employment. I discuss the political effects of the abolition as a potential explanation for these findings.

Keywords: slavery; state corecion; trade; abolition; cotton (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F16 N35 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2024-12-31
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara, nep-his and nep-int
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Published in Journal of Economic History, 31, December, 2024, 84(4), pp. 1107 - 1141. ISSN: 0022-0507

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/121130/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Trade, Slavery, and State Coercion of Labor: Egypt during the First Globalization Era (2024)
Working Paper: Trade, Slavery, and State Coercion of Labor: Egypt During the First Globalization Era (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:121130

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