Domar serfdom model

Historical Application

Domar concentrates the testing of his model on historical analysis of serfdom and slavery in Russia, Poland-Lithuania, Western Europe, and the United States. Domar's analysis of Russia looks at pre-1550, where Russian peasants were free men, and 100 years later, where Russian peasants were serfs. (Domar, 8) Domar states that the relevant factors contributing to this change in classification were the number of servants required by the military and the population density. (Domar, 8) In the second half of the 15th century, the Russian government began distributing land, depopulating the central areas of the country. By the start of the 17th century, a high land/labor ratio was present in addition to the governmental need to create a large class of servants, which caused a large increase in serfdom levels in Russia into the 19th century. (Domar, 11) In Poland-Lithuania, relevant factors leading to the increase in slavery and serfdom started in the 14th century with a conquering of Ukrainian land, leading to a much higher land/labor ratio in the newly expanded region. (Domar, 11-12) In addition, the immigration out of the central areas and into the more peripheral areas of the state led to a more homogenous land/labor ratio throughout the entire state. (Domar, 12) In his analysis of serfdom in Western Europe, Domar suggests that depopulation of the late Rome Empire created a large increase in the land/labor ratio, creating a situation in which the development of serfdom rose as a subsequent effect of an increasing land/labor ratio due to a decreasing population. (Domar, 13) The end of the 13th century in Western Europe is met by a sharp decline in serfdom, which Domar attributes to overpopulation, a large surplus of labor, and thus a very low land/labor ratio. Additionally, this economic model plays an incredibly important role in the analysis of the causes of slavery in the Colonial American South. Domar states that the American South demonstrated abundant free land and large scale agriculture, but not abundant free labor. In contrast, the American North demonstrated abundant free land and abundant free labor, but not large scale agriculture. The American South during the colonial period was characterized by vast amounts of fertile land that was largely uninhabited previous to colonization, and sparsely populated during colonization. (Domar, 16) Domar attributes the importation of slaves to the American South as an economic need for labor due to such a high land/labor ratio. Domar qualifies the difference in popularity of slavery in the American South relative to the American North to political and social objections, as well as a potential for increased adaptability of slaves to the warmer climate, or the increased productivity that goes along with longer and more fruitful seasons in the south due to the temperature. (Domar, 16)

Critiques

The Domar Serfdom Model has been met with criticism since its publishing in The Journal of Economic History in 1970. In 2009, Professor Jean Jacques Rosa authored a paper titled, “The Causes of Serfdom: A Hypothesis Revisited” in which Rosa argues that serfdom and slavery are mutually exclusive events. Where Domar argues that labor scarcity is a necessary but exogenous political factor needed for serfdom, Rosa challenges his view by showing that “in an agrarian subsistence economy the complementary conditions of serfdom are (a) oligopsony power in labor demand, sustained by (b) an oligopolistic supply of violence by large land owners.” In addition, Professor Erik Green of Lund University argues that Domar's model fails in explaining the origins of slavery in Cape Colony, South Africa, where the consensus is that slavery evolved as an urban phenomenon, which would call into question the land/labor ratio Domar uses to explain the causes of slavery and serfdom. Moreover, Professor Jonathon Cunning of Hunter University authored a paper titled “On the Causes of Slavery or Serfdom and the Roads to Agrarian Capitalism: Domar’s Hypothesis Revisited”. In his paper, Cunning offers a “simple general equilibrium formalization of Domar’s famous hypothesis on the causes of slavery or serfdom that emphasizes the interactions between factor endowments, the nature of the production technologies, and the initial distribution of property rights over land.” Cunning's paper is viewed more so as an expansion upon Domar's model rather than a direct challenge to his hypothesis.