The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1928-01-06
ELEMENTS OF POLITICAL EDU-
CATION
WHAT ARE THE PRODUCTION METHODS
OF SLAVEHOLDING. SOCIETY?
Continued from last week.

q WHAT AXE The PRODUCTION METHODS
OF SLAVEHOLDING SOCIETY?
The overwhelming Importance in economy of
agriculture, to which cattle-raisng already plays
subordinate role, settled life, with still suf-
tlclent expanse of land-these are the technical
conditions of slaveholding society.
Slaveholding society could arise only at a GER
tain stage of the productivity of labor. Hunting
peoples, the productivity of whose labor was ex-
tremely low, could not lay up any reserve stores.
Under nomadic condition of life the preservation
OF 1ood supplies is in general, very difficult In
nuntlng the energy expended is Immediately re-
ne"eo oy the consumption of the acquired food;
tnere could not yet be any need for surplus pro-
ducts or surplus labor Naturally, among the
hunting peoples slavery could have no place and
therefore was quite insignificant in extent. Among
the pastoral peoples, slavery is met with more fire.
quently but still does not attain anv broad dstr;
button. In any particular social system slavery
is established only when the productivity of labor
mas risen so high that the worker can already pro-
duce surplus above that which is essential for
the maintenance of his own life When labor he
gins 70 give such surplus, the motivation an
pears Tor the exploitation of the labor power of
man which IN that period could be applied to labor
only on the basis of compulsion (the transforma
ton OF worker, a captive, into slave)
Labor IN application to hunting and partly TO
pastoral economy, could not yet be sufficiently
productive, for here the use of implements WAS
extremely limited. Only with the development of
the sowing of grain, l. e. with the rise of cviliza
ton, OF settled agriculture on the basis of the
OF implements, is certain scope attained for the
development of the productivity of labor The
multiplication of the population demands a still
greater exploitation of the chief source of the
1ood supply of that period-the land. This exnloi-
1atlon could be realized in two ways: 1. By ex-
.enolng rne area under cultivation and g. By the
Improvement OF the cultivation of one and the
same area OF land. While there was sufficient
quantity OF free, unoccupied soil, naturally. the
eAplONatlon went on by means of extending the
area This extension required a greater number
Oh workers, which the rulers of the tribe could
nave only In the form of labor power FOREIGN to
Cner own economy, i. e., in the form of slaves.
who were, together with the means of production
The property of the chiefs of the economic INIT
thus, slavery developed on the basis of settled
agricultural civilizations Later when free land
became less and it became necessary to exnloit the
lana oy means of better methods of cultivation.
slaVe lanor began already to serve as brake on
'ne development OF the productive forces of agri-
culture and slaveholding society had to break nm
giving place to the new systematic feuda1 svs.
tenn. io Aeuudl SyS-
slavery may exist under the conditions of NAT
urai economy as well as of an exchange economy
however It's highest development slavery reaches
IN Vne epoch of natural economy.
8. WHAT WERE THE PRODUCTIVE RErA
IlONSHIPS IN SLAvEHOLDING SOCIETYq
Inc productive relationships, l. e., the relation
ships between human beings in the process of 10
OOr' cnange together with changes in social meth
DDS of production.
Inc change In the technical foundations of social
economy, with its transition from communal fri
pal conditions to slavehoding consisted in the fact
tnat agriculture, based on an adequate expanse
Oh land, attained prdeominating Importance in
economy With the still weakly developed meth
ous Oh production and the weak division of labor
agriculture could be socially productive only under
conditions of employment of mass slave labor IN
uer slavery, man becomes a thing the complete
property OF his owner; not the labor power of the
man is the commodity here Gas in the capitalist
system) but the man himself, his whole person,
unreservedly
Under such conditions, the productive relation
snlps IN slaveholding society are found on the
sharp opposition of two classes the class of slave
owners cruelty exploiting the slaves, beating out
OF Them surplus labor, and the class OF slaves
without any rights, reduced to the level OF nipple
ments of labor
Continued next week.