[ExI] Belief in Market Efficiency

[painlord2k at libero.it]

Il 02/02/2009 13.22, Stathis Papaioannou ha scritto:
> 2009/2/2 Damien Broderick<thespike at satx.rr.com>:
>
>> Unless you thought I was saying that *only* "Free market traders with
>> education, enlightenment and refinement" owned slaves, and even I'm not that
>> stupid.

> No, but I don't see how a free market could by itself ever eliminate
> slavery once it was established, perhaps as a carryover from more
> savage times. Proclamations about personal freedom would be something
> tacked on by do-gooders and world-improvers, who as we know are always
> doomed to make things worse.

History could show how free market is a mortal enemy of slavery.

The South seceded because the North didn't allow the slavery to be 
established in the West.
The presence of states without slavery at the borders of states with 
slavery (and slaves) put economic pressure on the slave holders in these 
states because the slaves (that had a very high value) were able to 
escape the bondages and find shelter over the borders.

Nearer the border, easier was for the slaves to escape the bondages.
At the end, there more loss than gain in owing slaves. So people gave up 
to have and use slaves. And become hostile to the slave holders as they 
were competitors with cheaper workforce than them.

So, the slave holder were forced to recede as the territories where 
slavery were economically sustainable. Then the balance of power in a 
state changed and abolitionists become able to pass law banning slavery 
and a new state banning slavery border states where slavery exist.

Rinse and repeat.

So they needed to secede to keep the bordering states as a buffer where 
slavery was legal but not economical and stop the domino effect.

This is not so much different from how slavery and serfdom were 
destroyed in Europe. People were able to take shelter from their master 
in cities and after a period be legally free from bondages with the old 
masters. Thank to the hammering of the Christian church for a few 
centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire in the West.

Indeed, the slavery returned mainly where the power of the Roman Church 
was lower (like North and South America) compared with the states and 
the holders of lands.

Mirco