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Skilled slaves and the economy: the silver mines of the Laurion
Tracey Rihll
Antike Sklaverei: Rückblick und Ausblick. Neue Beiträge zur Forschungsgeschichte und zur Erschließung der archäologischen Zeugnisse, Pages: 203 - 220
Swansea University Author: Tracey Rihll
Abstract
In this paper I argue that there is a direct connection, indeed, a causal relationship, that explains why we find skilled slaves in dangerous occupations. There are two principal strands to the argument. First, the acquisition of skill requires a period of training, and the greater the skill, the lo...
| Published in: | Antike Sklaverei: Rückblick und Ausblick. Neue Beiträge zur Forschungsgeschichte und zur Erschließung der archäologischen Zeugnisse |
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| Published: |
Stuttgart
Franz Steiner Verlag
2010
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| Online Access: |
http://www.steiner-verlag.de/titel/57855.html |
| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa11514 |
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| Abstract: |
In this paper I argue that there is a direct connection, indeed, a causal relationship, that explains why we find skilled slaves in dangerous occupations. There are two principal strands to the argument. First, the acquisition of skill requires a period of training, and the greater the skill, the longer or more intense the training. These sorts of skills are learned on the job not at a desk. We can take it as axiomatic that the more dangerous, unpleasant, or technically demanding the job, the fewer the number of free that would be found engaged in it, because the free could choose to do something else, and a relatively large proportion of them would have exercised that freedom. Second, it costs the skilled craftsperson time and money to train someone, and the trainee’s contribution to the business may be a mixed blessing: sub-standard trainee products or services may not be serviceable, and anyway risk the master’s reputation, so she or he may not be able to recoup even the costs of manufacture, until the trainee is really well trained. Silver production was a complex, technically demanding, and highly dangerous business, requiring specialised knowledge and a combination of unusual skill sets, which were possessed by different people who worked on the material at different stages. Most of these people were slaves. Each individual’s knowledge had a value within the context of the production process, but was of little utility on its own or outside the production chain. Very few individuals knew or understood what was required across the whole process. When in 413 BC some, perhaps the bulk, of these slaves seized a war-induced opportunity, or were forced by a war-induced local famine, to run away, they took with them their expertise. Because the production process was complex, involving many stages, it was also fragile, and the whole thing could be brought to a halt by a break in just one stage. It may have caused a silver famine for a generation. |
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| Keywords: |
Slavery, skills, mining, silver, Athens, Peloponnesian war |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Start Page: |
203 |
| End Page: |
220 |