A recording of a lecture given on Monday 3 June 2013 in the Teviot Lecture Theatre of the Old Medical School. 

In an abstract from a recent paper on a similar theme, Professor Scheidel said:

“The use of coerced labour in the form of chattel slavery in the private sector has long been regarded as one of the defining characteristics of the ancient Greek and Roman economies. It may even have been critical in producing the surplus that sustained the ruling class.

“In early China, by contrast, forced labour (often by convicts) appears to have been concentrated in the public sector”.

In his talk, Professor Scheidel will look at both systems comparatively, in order to investigate whether the differences were genuine and significant, and whether they can be related to observed outcomes in terms of general economic and socio-political development."

Please note that captions were generated automatically.