Abstract:This article examines the re-emergence of commercialized agriculture from the fourth century onwards and the related penetration of the monetary economy into the rural areas, and it seeks to demonstrate a causal connection between economic expansion, wealth accumulation, and the increase of wage laborers—of landless peasants in particular. It accordingly argues that as a form of organization of labor, tenancy remained quantitatively predominant, but it was the very existence of a supplementary labor force composed of slaves and wage laborers that made tenancy so resilient in the face of changes in market demand. While slavery played a pivotal role in elite control over the commercialized production of specific cash crops, by offering a flexible seasonal labor supply, wage-labor assured the elasticity necessary for large, landed infrastructures. In essence, this article shows that it was this mixed labor regime that provided the real pay-offs. It also claims that since this regime was accompanied by the increased predominance of gold in all types of transaction, the process of economic growth widened the polarization between the two main social classes, one defined by factors of land or capital and the other by labor. This state of affairs generated as a further consequence the reaction of the laborers, which mainly took the form of an increased, and at times a strategic, mobility.

中文翻译：

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“缺失的因素”：罗马北非晚期（公元 400-600 年）的经济和劳动力

摘要：本文考察了 4 世纪以来商业化农业的重新出现以及货币经济向农村的相关渗透，试图证明经济扩张、财富积累和工资增长之间的因果关系。劳动者——尤其是无地农民。因此，它认为，作为一种劳动力组织形式，租赁在数量上仍然占主导地位，但正是由奴隶和雇佣劳动者组成的补充劳动力的存在，使得租赁在面对市场需求变化时如此具有弹性。虽然奴隶制在精英控制特定经济作物的商业化生产方面发挥了关键作用，但通过提供灵活的季节性劳动力供应，雇佣劳动确保了大型、陆上基础设施。从本质上讲，本文表明正是这种混合劳动制度提供了真正的回报。它还声称，由于这种制度伴随着黄金在所有类型交易中的优势增加，经济增长过程扩大了两个主要社会阶层之间的两极分化，一个由土地或资本因素定义，另一个由劳动力因素定义。这种情况进一​​步导致了工人的反应，主要表现为增加的、有时是战略性的流动形式。经济增长过程扩大了两个主要社会阶层之间的两极分化，一个由土地或资本因素界定，另一个由劳动力因素界定。这种情况进一​​步导致了工人的反应，主要表现为增加的、有时是战略性的流动形式。经济增长过程扩大了两个主要社会阶层之间的两极分化，一个由土地或资本因素界定，另一个由劳动力因素界定。这种情况进一​​步导致了工人的反应，主要表现为增加的、有时是战略性的流动形式。