Coercion and Wage Labour presents novel histories of people who experienced physical, social, political or cultural compulsion in the course of paid work. Broad in scope, the chapters examine diverse areas of work including textile production, war industries, civil service and domestic labour, in contexts from the Middle Ages to the present day. They demonstrate that wages have consistently shaped working people’s experiences, and failed to protect workers from coercion. Instead, wages emerge as versatile tools to bind, control, and exploit workers. Remuneration mirrors the distribution of power in labour relations, often separating employers physically and emotionally from their employees, and disguising coercion. The book makes historical narratives accessible for interdisciplinary audiences. Most chapters are preceded by illustrations by artists invited to visually conceptualise the book’s key messages and to emphasise the presence of the body and landscape in the realm of work. In turn, the chapter texts reflect back on the artworks, creating an intense intermedial dialogue that offers mutually relational ‘translations’ and narrations of labour coercion. Other contributions written by art scholars discuss how coercion in remunerated labour is constructed and reflected in artistic practice. The collection serves as an innovative and creative tool for teaching, and raises awareness that narrating history is always contingent on the medium chosen and its inherent constraints and possibilities. Praise for Coercion and Wage Labour Coercion and Wage Labour is a pioneering volume. It makes a well-founded break with the widespread misconception that wage labour is by definition free from coercion. The fourteen historical case studies ... lead to the conclusion that wage labourers too were subject to many forms of coercion and that usually their “freedom” was and is only relative. But something else makes this book special: throughout the text there are artistic illustrations that enter into a dialogue with the individual chapters, which in turn reflect on the images. This creates an inspiring interaction that complements the volume’s interdisciplinary nature. Marcel van der Linden, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam

Novel histories of people who experienced physical, social, political, or cultural compulsion in the course of paid work. Broad in scope, Coercion and Wage Labour examines diverse areas of work including textile production, war industries, civil service, and domestic labor, in contexts from the Middle Ages to the present day. This book demonstrates that wages have consistently shaped working people's experiences and failed to protect workers from coercion. Instead, wages emerge as versatile tools to bind, control, and exploit workers. Remuneration mirrors the distribution of power in labor relations, often separating employers physically and emotionally from their employees and disguising coercion. The book makes historical narratives accessible to interdisciplinary audiences. Most chapters are preceded by illustrations by artists invited to visually conceptualize the book's key messages and to emphasize the presence of the body and landscape in the realm of work. In turn, the chapter texts reflect back on the artworks, creating an intense intermedial dialogue that offers mutually relational "translations" and narrations of labor coercion. Other contributions written by art scholars discuss how coercion in remunerated labor is constructed and reflected in artistic practice. The collection serves as an innovative and creative tool for teaching and raises awareness that narrating history is always contingent on the medium chosen and its inherent constraints and possibilities.

This book presents a fundamental reassessment of the nature of wage labor in the nineteenth century, focusing on the common use of penal sanctions in England to enforce wage labor agreements. Professor Steinfeld argues that wage workers were not employees at will but were often bound to their employment by enforceable labor agreements, which employers used whenever available to manage their labor costs and supply. In the northern United States, where employers normally could not use penal sanctions, the common law made other contract remedies available, also placing employers in a position to enforce labor agreements. Modern free wage labor only came into being late in the nineteenth century, as a result of reform legislation that restricted the contract remedies employers could legally use.

On Coerced Labor focuses on forms of labor which, unlike chattel slavery, have received little scholarly attention. It provides discussions of legal definitions of unfree labor as well as empirical findings on convict and military labor, indentured labor, debt bondage, and sharecropping.

Amarjit Kaur examines wage labour's role in economic growth and change in Southeast Asia since 1840. Her study focuses on globalization; the international division of labour and how transnational economic processes shaped and continue to shape labour systems. There are five main themes - labour processes, migration and labour systems; labour circulation or mobility; the gendered nature of labour relations; and, class consciousness, worker organization and labour standards. A wide-ranging study which will be of great interest to historians, economists and Asia specialists.

Presents case studies of primary research into what forced labour is and how it is linked to abusive recruitment and wage payment systems in different economic, social and cultural contexts. Covers the persistence of bonded labour in Asia, rural debt bondage in Latin America, slavery-like practices in Africa, and human trafficking to developed countries. Notes ILO's work in this area.