Slavery and Traps
The Malthusian trap describes a pre-industrial society where any small gains in productivity fueled population growth rather than higher living standards.
TL:DR – more people got to live in shittier conditions
Slave economies fed into this effect by tying wealth directly to ownership of people, turning human bodies into the primary unit of both production and capital.
Productivity scaled through reproduction and acquisition of slaves rather than mechanisation More workers meant more output but also greater subsistence costs.
Slavery acted as a structural brake on innovation and a mechanism for keeping societies inside the Malthusian Trap.
As an institution, slavery had to go, for economic reasons.
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