Overview

From the seventeenth century to the First World War, both free and unfree labor were essential for building an empire. This ambitious study examines the relationship between capitalism and coercion across the British, French and Russian empires throughout centuries of economic transformation. Overturning conventional explanations of serfdom, slavery, indentured migration and wage labor, Alessandro Stanziani demonstrates the dominance of aristocratic capitalism across Europe and Eurasia until the end of the nineteenth century. He links the Industrial Revolution, the Great Divergence and the Great Transformation into a single narrative in which the coercion and emancipation of labor are crucial steps. Stanziani argues that, if the modern state is now beset with labor inequalities and tensions surrounding mobility, it is not because Western values have been hijacked but because they were built on empire, labor and coercion.

Full Product Details

Author:   Alessandro Stanziani (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Weight:   0.693kg
ISBN:  

9781009608596

ISBN 10:   1009608592
Pages:   360
Publication Date:   18 December 2025
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I. Labor Rules and Colonization: 1. The Russian way: peasants, landowners and the empire; 2. The British empire: coercion in the name of freedom; 3. The French touch: protecting men in urban industry, excluding rural people, women and colonies; Part II. The Economics of Bondage: 4. The Russian empire and the economic dynamics of serfdom; 5. Labor and the British Industrial Revolution; 6. International trade, slavery and the industrial revolution; 7. With or without you. France and the empire of sugar; Part III. Labor Empires Under Attack. From Abolition to the Great Transformation, 1840–1918: 8. Who is the true slave?; 9. The aristocratic abolition of serfdom in Russia; 10. Abolition in the United States and the great transformation; 11 Neo-colonialism in the age of the welfare state; General conclusion and extrapolations.

Reviews

'In a tour de force of four centuries of labor history across the British, French and Russian empires, Alessandro Stanziani develops a new view of the central role of coercion in the development of global capitalism. A fine-grained analysis deeply rooted in extensive archival research, he shows how serfdom, slavery, indenture and other forms of unfree labor structured the capitalist revolution deep into the nineteenth century. A book that effectively questions many cherished notions about the rise of the world we live in; required reading for anyone trying to come to terms with modern history.' Sven Beckert, author of Capitalism: A Global History 'A novel, erudite, and comparative exploration of empires, their labor politics, and social transformation by a master of world economic history. Stanziani's extensive research turns the tables on Eurocentric assumptions and produces a highly revisionist interpretation of industrialization, abolition, and the persistence of social inequity.' Jane Burbank, co-author of Post-Imperial Possibilities: Eurasia, Eurafrica, Afroasia 'Building on Stanziani's extensive research and insights into the bond between forced labour and capitalism, Empires of Labour offers a groundbreaking study of how labour systems have shaped political and economic change worldwide from the sixteenth century.' Tirthankar Roy, author of Monsoon Economies

Author Information

Alessandro Stanziani is Professor of Global History at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) and Senior Researcher at the CNRS. He is the author of Earth Capital: The Long History of Capitalism and Its Aftermath.

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