I investigate the effects of trade on labor coercion under the dual-coercive institutions of slavery and state coercion. Employing novel data from Egypt, I document that the cotton boom in 1861–1865 increased both imported slaveholdings of the rural middle class and state coercion of local workers by the elite. As state coercion reduced wage employment, it reinforced the demand for slaves among the rural middle class. While the abolition of slavery in 1877 increased wages, it did not affect state coercion or wage employment. I discuss the political effects of the abolition as a potential explanation for these findings.

“The barbarism of the [U.S.] South, while destroying itself, [appeared] in the providence of God to be working out the regeneration of Egypt.”

North American Review 98, no. 203 (1864, p. 483), quoted in Earle (1926)

我研究了在奴隶制和国家胁迫的双重胁迫制度下，贸易对劳动胁迫的影响。我利用来自埃及的新数据记录了 1861 年至 1865 年的棉花繁荣增加了农村中产阶级的进口奴隶制和精英对当地工人的国家胁迫。随着国家强制减少工资就业，它加强了农村中产阶级对奴隶的需求。虽然 1877 年废除奴隶制提高了工资，但它并没有影响国家强制或工资就业。我讨论了废除死刑的政治影响，作为对这些发现的潜在解释。

“[美国] 的野蛮行径南方虽然毁灭了自己，但在上帝的旨意中[似乎]正在成就埃及的复兴。

《北美评论》第 98 期，第 203 期（1864 年，第 483 页），引自 Earle （1926）