LABOR (OF. labor, labeur. Fr. labeur, from Lat. labor, toil). Human activity put forth as a means to the production of goods. Two forums. forced or slave labor, induced by the fear of pun ishment. and contract or free labor, induced by the desire for goods as a means to the satisfaction of wants, are to be sharply distinguished.
The earliest civilizations were based on sys tems of slave labor, the slaves being either a sub ject people dominated by a conquering race or prisoners of war. Such systems led inevitably to the degeneration of the governing class. and were overthrown as soon as the peoples establish ing them came in contact with more vigorous races which had been forced by circumstances to depend more upon their own exertions. Dur ing the .Middle Ages. and even down to modern times in some of the countries of Europe, the sys tem of labor was a modified form of slavery known as serfdom. Serfs were hound to the soil. end compelled to obey their feudal lords in all important matters. At the same time they had certain customary rights and privileges which the lords, on their side, were bound to respect. Although adapted to the conditions of a slowly developing agricultural community, serfdom was not at all suited to a manufacturing, or commer cial people. For this and other reasons it gave place to the system of free labor, at first in Eng land (luring the fifteenth century: then in France, Germany, and the other countries of Western and Central Europe during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; and finally in Russia during the latter half of the nineteenth century.
With the discovery of America and the open ing up of new lands suited to a semi-tropical agriculture, a new form of slavery was devised, that of African negroes, brought across the ocean in slave-ships and made to hear the brunt of the heavy labor connected with the production of tobacco, cotton, and other crops. In the United States there ensued a period of development in which the country was 'half slave and half free.' which proved intolerable to both sections, and culminated in the Civil War and the subsequent abolition of slavery.
The different conceptions of free labor which have played a part in the development of econom ic thought can best be indicated by reviewing briefly the views of leading economists. It was characteristic of the Mercantilist writers to ignore labor and the other factors in the pro duction of wealth, and to ascribe exaggerated importance to the precious metals. The l'hysio crats appreciated more truly the function of the precious metals: but they also gave slight atten tion to labor• as such, because they ascribed un due importance to the part which land and natu ral forces play in production. They even went so far as to characterize manufacturing and mer cantile labor as unproductive (sterile), and to declare that agricultural labor is alone produc tive, since it alone creates a surplus of goods over and above those needed to satisfy the laborer's own necessities. Adam Smith. on the other hand, following Petty and Hume, represented labor as the principal factor in the production of wealth. In his treatment. the division of labor is made the chief cause of industrial progress, and the part which nature plays in production is passed over with scant consideration. lie distinguished productive from unproductive labor by defining the former as activity which realizes itself in some material form (that is, commodities rather than services). Nevertheless. he followed the Physioerats in ascribing peculiar productiveness to agricultural labor. for, he says. in agricul ture "nature labors along with man." Ricardo gave his attention primarily to the distribution of wealth, and based his theory on the proposi tion that value is always in proportion to the i,uuntiti of labor. Ile added little to Adam Smith's treatment of labor as a factor in produc tion. except to point out that nature assists man in all his industrial pursuit-. and not merely in farming. John Stuart Mill went a step further toward giving scientitie precision to economic analysis by pointing out that labor does not create commodities. lent merely changes their forms. and in so doing creates utilities.