gallows, slavery, ect

[Brian D. McCary]

> 108.26    "for Commerce without Slavery is unthinkable, whilst Slavery
> must ever include, as an essential Term, the Gallows,--Slavery without
> the Gallows being as hollow and Waste a Proceeding, as a Crusade without
> the Cross."

Glad to see this getting air time.  Here's my take:

"Commerce without Slavery is unthinkable" - Commerce depends on differential 
valuation:  each side must believe that they are giving less for the goods in
trade than they are taking.  One sure way to generate excess valuation is to 
steal something:  by taking it, you put in little work, so you don't need to
get the full labor value out of it.  Slavery is a form of stealing labor.  Large
scale commerce will depend on large scale excess valuation, in order to justify
the risk and capital investment.  In Wick's time, large scale Slavery was what
permitted production of some of the major trade goods (I'm thinking sugar cane
in this instance, but I'm sure there were others), and large scale Commerce would
probably be unthinkable without this kind of exploitation.

Today, to some extent, some level of stolen manual labor has been replaced by 
machine labor.  At first, I was thinking that slavery has been abolished; now
I'm considering Asian shoe factories, illegal immigrant sweatshops, underpaid
domestic help, cheap porno films.  Undercompensated work (stolen labor time) is
still a major part of our economy, and slavery, in a differant form, continues.
Deprive a family of arable land, education, clean water, and you can force them
into the factories without claiming direct ownership of them.

Although the gallows is largely invisible here in the US, it continues to exist
in the third world (hate that term) as a form of political control.  Without
political and economic rule from the top, we probably cannot continue to produce
sneakers at what is probably $10 a pop.  It is the threat of death which keeps the
workers from leaving their jobs out of tedium or frustration.

And why would Slavery without the Gallows be hollow and a Waste?  Because, no matter
what short term threats might keep the slaves in line, without the thought of 
death, they will eventually leave the arrangement, as surely as Katje left Blicero
and Gotfried.  Just decide one day that it is no longer worth it.  Without the
Gallows, your large scale undervalued Slave labor pool will fall apart, just as
a Crusade will fall apart at key moments without some rallying symbol of marterdom
to spur the poor suckers on.

Or that's how I see it now.
Brian McCary