forms of slavery 275
to the expansion of the west European economy, which in the eighteenth century
became dependent on a new form of slavery on large plantations, in order to profit
from merchandizing human beings and goods. As always, economic expansion and
political power went together.
The North-African corsairs lost out once western European governments were
able to secure shipping routes by paying off the corsairs and the protection that their
crowns offered. It is well-known that it was the British hegemony in international
trade in the nineteenth century which made the enforcement of the abolition act in
the Atlantic possible. Slavery and the slave trade in Europe and the Mediterranean
were matters of international politics throughout the nineteenth century. The French
National Assembly abolished slavery in France and most of its colonies in 1794 (only
for it to be restored in 1802). After the abolition of the slave trade and of slavery in
Britain (1807, 1833–1838) and in France (1848), it was the turn of Portugal (1865)
and Spain (1880) to pass general emancipation decrees. In 1850 Britain had already
forced Portugal to abolish slavery in Brazil.
In the east too, the abolition of the Ottoman slave trade, and slavery in the Muslim
world in general, was a process that went hand-in-hand with the British and French
expansion in the Ottoman Mediterranean. France took over North Africa, and the
new position of the British Empire in east Africa, the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf
enabled it to act in order to cut off the African sources of the Ottoman slave trade
(Toledano, 1982). The abolition of the Istanbul slave market in 1847 did not elimi-
nate the trade from the Caucasus and the Caspian. This was essential for the incorpo-
ration of human beings into the Ottoman household, which was very much dependent
on slaves, both male (kul) and female (harem). The abolition of slavery thus met with
opposition especially for these types of slave. But international conventions and intel-
lectual discourse had their way. The Ottoman Empire was pressed by Britain to sign
an abolition treaty in 1880, and in 1891 it also signed the Brussels Conference Act,
which suppressed all slave trade.
Ten months after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, Husayn
Pasha, the mayor of Tunis, explained in his letter to the local American consul-general
that abolition was essential for economic prosperity, since free persons are more pro-
ductive than slaves, and countries where slavery no longer exists are more prosperous
(Toledano, 1982: 277). This is an excellent example of the way in which slavery now
became conceptualized in the Mediterranean, in terms of productivity in contrast to
“free labor.”
Concluding remarksOver three millennia slavery was an inextricable part of Mediterranean social and eco-
nomic life. Its existence and expansion were conditioned by two main factors: the
evolution of the Mediterranean political map, which determined the relations between
Mediterranean civilizations, and the international economic map. Prosperity entailed
large slave markets. But the value of a human being was in itself an engine for eco-
nomic dynamics, and prosperity was also dependent on slavery. Slaves were not used
exclusively in any economic sector. However, they were required, especially in the
cities, for creating and maintaining a household as a hierarchical socio-economic
enterprise. Many slaves advanced in their positions thanks to the opportunities that