Gwyn Campbell

The structure of slavery in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia

Slavery - A Question of Definition A Forgotten Corner of the Indian Ocean - Gujarati Merchants, Portuguese India and the Mozambique Slave-Trade, c.1730-1830 The Mascarene Slave-Trade and Labour Migration in the Indian Ocean during the 18th and 19th Centuries Flight to Freedom - Escape from Slavery among Bonded Africans in the Indian Ocean World, c.1750-1962 Violent Capture of People for Exchange on Karen-Tai Borders in the 1830s Human Capital, Slavery and Low Rates of Economic and Population Growth in Indonesia, 1600-1910 Forced Labour Mobilization during the World War II The Structure of Slavery in the Sulu Zone in the Late 18th and 19th Centuries Slavery and Colonial Representations in Indochina from the Second Half of the 19th to the Early 20th Centuries Slaves and Forms of Slavery in Late Imperial China (17th to Early 20th Centuries) Nobi - A Korean System of Slavery A Theme in Variations - A Historical Schema of Slaving in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Regions.

Introduction: Old World strategies against New World competition in a globalising wine industry

Purpose – This introductory paper aims to place the contributions to this special issue within the context of the recent impact of globalisation on the wine industry, characterised by rapidly growing and evolving international markets, the expansion of New World wines on international markets, and the response of Old World rivals to New World competition.Design/methodology/approach – This paper examines the new competitive environment in the wine industry created by globalisation and outlines the way in which the authors of the papers in this special issue have contributed to an understanding of that environment.Findings – This paper reflects a renewed academic interest in winemaking, one of the most dynamic and rapidly developing agricultural sectors.Originality/value – The paper hightlights how the authors of the papers in this special issue have contributed to an understanding of this new competitive environment.

Madagascar and the Slave Trade, 1810–1895

The distinguishing feature of the Malagasy slave trade in the nineteenth century was the co-existence of two competitive slave networks, the one feeding Malagasy slaves to meet the demand of long-distance and regional markets in the western Indian Ocean, and the other channelling Malagasy war captives and East African slaves on to the markets of Imerina. The export of slaves from Madagascar had long existed, but the import of slaves was a new and distinctly nineteenth-century phenomenon, the result of the rise of the Merina empire, whose economy was based on a huge, unremunerated and servile labour force. As the empire expanded, so its labour requirements grew, to conflict sharply with the increasing demand for labour on the neighbouring plantation islands as they shifted over to the production of sugar. Creole merchants found themselves obliged to find alternative labour supplies, and from the 1830s they were moving rapidly down the west coast of Madagascar, where they purchased slaves from chiefs independent of Merina control. Until the outbreak of the Franco-Merina war of 1882–5, the slave-trade networks remained remarkably stable, despite local rivalries. This was due largely to the presence of the Arab Antalaotra, an experienced body of middlemen, and the Indian Karany who supplied the capital for the trade. The war effectively broke the power of the Merina regime, and as the imperial economy crumbled, so security of trade collapsed across the island. Though the disruption of legitimate commerce initially spurred the slave trade, it also strengthened creole calls for French intervention. This occurred in 1895, and the following year the French authorities abolished slavery in Madagascar. This, and the effective military occupation of the island by the French, reduced the Malagasy slave trade to a trickle by the first years of the twentieth century.

Introduction: Slavery and other forms of Unfree Labour in the Indian Ocean World

(2003). Introduction: Slavery and other forms of Unfree Labour in the Indian Ocean World. Slavery & Abolition: Vol. 24, The Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia, pp. ix-xxxii.

Slavery and Fanompoana: The Structure of Forced Labour in Imerina (Madagascar), 1790-1861

A recent school of historical thought has emerged, centred around the writings of Maurice Bloch, which asserts that the imperial Merina economy from the early nineteenth century became totally dependent upon slave labour. It claims that there was such an influx of slaves into Imerina that slave numbers rose dramatically and all free Merina were relieved from productive work to engage in essentially non-productive occupations, notably the military, imperial administration and commerce. This article, which traces the development of forced labour in Madagascar and examines the structure of labour under autarky, takes issue with this viewpoint. It emphasises not only that the slave population of Imerina in the nineteenth century was lower than asserted, but that Bloch misunderstands the nature of fanompoana which, from the adoption of autarky in the mid-1820s, formed the organizing principle of most sectors of the imperial Merina economy outside subsistence agriculture. The impoverishment of the Merina economy which was a root cause of autarky led to a great decline in slave-holding amongst peasants who were in consequence largely obliged to work their own ricefields, either alone, or alongside the few slaves they managed to retain. By contrast, the Merina elite increasingly monopolized available labour resources, slave and fanompoana. Fanompoana , traditionally a limited form of prestation to the crown, was radically restructured under autarky between 1825 and 1861. Far from being ‘unproductive’, the imperial army, the largest fanompoana institution, constituted a huge and elaborate commercial organization which was used to exploit the empires resources and channel them to the imperial heartland. At the same time, fanompoana units comprising Merina soldiers and colonists established farms and engaged in commerce in the provinces. Finally, fanompoana labour was widely used on the east coast plantations, and especially in the attempt to forge an industrial revolution in Imerina. In sum, this article argues that fanompoana rather than slavery formed the basis of the imperial Merina economy under autarky, ad was a major factor contributing to the failure of autarkic policies.

The State and Pre-Colonial Demographic History: The Case of Nineteenth-Century Madagascar

This paper analyses the demography of nineteenth-century Madagascar in the light of the debate generated by the demographic transition theory. Both supporters and critics of the theory hold to an intrinsic opposition between human and ‘natural’ factors, such as climate, famine and disease, influencing demography. They also suppose a sharp chronological divide between the pre-colonial and colonial eras, arguing that whereas ‘natural’ demographic influences were of greater importance in the former period, human factors predominated thereafter. This paper argues that in the case of nineteenth-century Madagascar the human factor, in the form of the Merina state, was the predominant demographic influence. However, the impact of the state was felt through natural forces, and it varied over time. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Merina state policies stimulated agricultural production, which helped to create a larger and healthier population and laid the foundation for Merina military and economic expansion within Madagascar. From the 1820, the cost of such expansionism led the state to increase its exploitation of forced labour at the expense of agricultural production and thus transformed it into a negative demographic force. Infertility and infant mortality, which were probably more significant influences on overall population levels than the adult mortality rate, increased from 1820 due to disease, malnutrition and stress, all of which stemmed from state forced labour policies. Available estimates indicate little if any population growth for Madagascar between 1820 and 1895. The demographic ‘crisis’ in Africa, ascribed by critics of the demographic transition theory to the colonial era, stemmed in Madagascar from the policies of the imperial Merina regime which in this sense formed a link to the French regime of the colonial era. In sum, this paper questions the underlying assumptions governing the debate about historical demography in Africa and suggests that the demographic impact of political forces be re-evaluated in terms of their changing interaction with ‘natural’ demographic influences.

Missionaries, fanompoana and the Menalamba revolt in late nineteenth century Madagascar

ABSTRACT Historians to date have considered that the Menalamba rebels of 1895–97 were primarily inspired by political and religious grievances. Missionaries were the most overt symbol of the attack by Western civilisation on traditional virtues which they wished to restore. However, the traditional interpretation fails both to account for rank and file, rather than elite, rebel motives, and to recognise the major role played by the state‐church in fomenting the revolt. Contrary to conventional thinking, economic rather than political motives were paramount in the decision to create a state‐church in 1869. Thereafter, missionaries became imperial agents, and the chapels and schools the prime institutions for the summoning of fanompoana labour which formed the chief resource of the imperial economy. This was particularly the case from late 1870s when the strain of French aggression and deteriorating conditions of trade necessitated increased reliance upon forced labour. Missionaries gave their passive, and ...

The Adoption of Autarky in Imperial Madagascar, 1820–1835

Traditionally, historians have viewed Queen Ranavalona I as being responsible for inaugurating an autarkic policy in Madagascar. Her expulsion of most foreigners from the country in 1835 is seen primarily as a reflection of her conservative and xenophobic attitudes. In this she is contrasted with her predecessor, Radama I, who is viewed as an enlightened and progressive monarch who, through wise domestic policies and an alliance with the British on Mauritius from 1817, built up an economically sound and prosperous empire. This paper challenges the traditional interpretation, arguing that in fact the Merina economy was in a dire condition from the second decade of the nineteenth century because the slave exports upon which it heavily depended were severely restricted in consequence of the British takeover of the Mascarenes. The subsequent alliance between Britain and Imerina totally prohibited slave exports. However, Radama I looked to Mauritius and British aid to promote legitimate exports and to help impose Merina rule over all Madagascar. Autarkic policies were initiated by Radama I in 1825–6 as a reaction against the failure of the British alliance to produce the anticipated results, and against the free trade imperialism that accompanied it. Convinced by 1825 that the Mauritius government meant to subordinate Imerina both economically and politically to British imperial interests, he reneged on the British treaty and adopted a policy designed to promote rapid economic growth within an independent island empire. Ranavalona I, far from implementing irrational and xenophobic policies, extended her predecessors autarkic policies in a rational and systematic manner, and for precisely the same ends.

Introduction: Slavery, forced labour and resistance in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia1

Conventional Western historiography based on the Atlantic slave system has characterized the slave as a chattel who could be sold or transferred at will by the owner, and a capital asset who, through coercion, bore dividends both in productive labour and through reproduction. Some authors have considered that economies in which slave labour predominated were characterized by a ‘slave mode of production’. The slave/free divide, the major social division in slave-owning societies, was accentuated by the slave’s legal inferiority and his/her foreign and allegedly uncivilized origin. Only in exceptional cases was a slave granted freedom. Again, conventional historiography portrays the forced labour policies of colonial regimes as highly exploitative, fomenting resentment, the formation of nationalism and a desire for independence. In such historical contexts, rebellion was to be expected. This is because there comes a point of exploitation at which the slave or unfree worker has nothing to gain from complying with the labour system he/she is subject to, and nothing to lose by rebelling against it. Thus there developed a vast range of reactions, from passive resistance to marronage and outright revolt. However, it is clear from this and other recent studies on slavery and unfree labour in Asia (including aboriginal Australia) and Indian Ocean Africa (IOA) that the range of reactions to forced labour regimes by those subject to them were much more varied than those presented in conventional literature on slavery. This, in turn, reflects the greater complexity of forced labour regimes in IOA and Asia, some of which resembled those of the Atlantic world, but most of which contrasted sharply in their structure and operation. An important part of the challenge for historians of slavery and unfree labour is that received distinctions between ‘slave’ and ‘free’ are not particularly helpful tools of historical analysis in most regions of IOA and Asia. The

Labour and the transport problem in imperial Madagascar, 1810–1895

The absolute dependence upon human labour for the transport of goods and travellers in nineteenth-century Madagascar can only be understood in terms of the peculiar nature of the imperial Merina structure. A justifiable fear of European attack and takeover led the Merina regime to rely on ‘Generals “Hazo” and “Tazo”’ (forest and fever) and an underdeveloped road network to hinder and ultimately prevent any foreign military force reaching the central plateau. Simultaneously, however, the regime wished to expand both internal and external trade so as to be accepted as an independent member of the international trading community. It therefore needed an efficient transport and communications system. This was created through an imperial porterage organization of slave and forced ( fanompoana ) labour. This system held attractions for the Merina political elite, by being both servile and unpaid. Investment in alternative transport arrangements remained unattractive. The deterrents were natural conservatism, lack of capital, and the significant profits to be made from hiring out slave porters to carry trade commodities which increased in volume from the 1860s. Under these conditions an indigenous ‘proto-trade union’, based upon the growing organizational strength of the maromita (porter) movement emerged in the island. Its power however rested on the absence in the Merina economy of any alternative transport system. When the French colonial regime instituted a modern road and rail transport network from 1895, the imperial porterage system disintegrated.