La funció econòmica del treball esclau a Màlaga al final de l’edat mitjana

Abstract

This article shows the complementary nature of slave labour in a settler society at the end of the Middle Ages. Without any aim to generalize, it scrutinizes some axioms of the standard view —above all those concerning female slave work, the non-productivity of slave work in general, and the role of the owners— which, in the light of what the evidence shows, should be revised or, at the very least, nuanced.