Empires of Labor

From the seventeenth century to the First World War, both free and unfree labour were essential for building an empire. This ambitious study examines the relationship between capitalism and coercion across the British, French, and Russian empires throughout centuries of economic transformation.

Overturning conventional explanations of serfdom, slavery, indentured migration, and wage labour, Alessandro Stanziani demonstrates the dominance of aristocratic capitalism across Europe and Eurasia until the end of the nineteenth century. He links the Industrial Revolution, the Great Divergence, and the Great Transformation into a single narrative in which the coercion and emancipation of labour are crucial steps.

Stanziani argues that, if the modern state is now beset with labour inequalities and tensions surrounding mobility, it is not because Western values have been hijacked but because they were built on empire, labour, and coercion.

Empires of Labor is a critical examination of these themes and reveals insightful perspectives on the historical interplay of labour and power.