Historians of premodern economies, in contrast to modern ones, have only infrequently contemplated the economic contribution of slavery. Here, I suggest that quantitative and statistical tools allow us to evaluate the place of slavery in an early economy, using Roman Pompeii as a case study. At the time of its destruction in 79 ce, Pompeii appears prosperous, having benefitted from the economic development thought to have characterized the Roman world. Recent discoveries, meanwhile, shed new light on the conditions of working classes and slaves throughout the city. These narratives can be seen to form two sides to the same coin, as Pompeii’s prosperity was created in large part thanks to slave labour. The connection is supported by constructing a probabilistic model, which suggests some 6 million sesterces (HS) flowed every year to Pompeii’s masters through their exploitation of slaves. Slave owning probably formed the largest single income source for the urban economy. This scale of income is shown to be consistent with recent reconstructions of wealth and income inequality in the city. The results not only speak to slavery’s profound importance to Pompeii’s prosperity, but they encourage a recentring of labour and slavery in Roman economic history.

中文翻译：

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罗马庞贝古城的奴隶制、繁荣和不平等


与现代经济相比，前现代经济的历史学家很少考虑奴隶制的经济贡献。在这里，我建议定量和统计工具使我们能够以罗马庞贝古城为例来评估奴隶制在早期经济中的地位。在公元 79 年被摧毁时，庞贝城似乎很繁荣，受益于被认为是罗马世界特征的经济发展。与此同时，最近的发现为整个城市工人阶级和奴隶的状况提供了新的视角。这些叙述可以看作是同一枚硬币的两面，因为庞贝城的繁荣在很大程度上要归功于奴隶劳动。这种联系得到了构建概率模型的支持，该模型表明每年约有 600 万塞斯特塞斯 （HS） 通过剥削奴隶流向庞贝城的主人。奴隶拥有可能是城市经济最大的单一收入来源。事实证明，这种收入规模与该市最近对财富和收入不平等的重建是一致的。结果不仅说明了奴隶制对庞贝城繁荣的深远重要性，而且它们鼓励了劳动和奴隶制在罗马经济史上的回归。