Alternatives to XVI Century Slavery

What possible alternatives could there be to the chattel slavery seen in the Americas of the 16th Century onwards?
 
It was inevitable that, can't be avoided racialized slavery was already occuring in the 15th century along with lifelong enslavement in Spain.
 
What possible alternatives could there be to the chattel slavery seen in the Americas of the 16th Century onwards?
The problem is that the plantation economy set up by Portuguese, Castillans and Aragoneses in the XVth was reliant on slavery (altough not only chattel slavery) and a semi-enserfment to undergo a cash-crop production, essentially sugar (that was mostly implemented in Valencian region,then Grenada, as a financially interesting production (with a significant support from Italy.

While slavery in Atlantic islands, then Americas tended to be significantly harsher and bloodier than in late medieval Spain and Portugal (which still tended to takeover the old slave trade roads that Arabo-Andalusian and Arabo-Berbers beneficied from, by-passing them by sea), it set the exemple and practices which were put up to eleven in Carribeans and Mexico (especially trough the technically semi-servage but real enslavement known as encomiendas).

So, short to butterfly away the medieval market economy and first capitalism...What could we have? Maybe a significant reduction of slavery in medieval Spain, possibly but it's far from an obvious consequence, an earlier reconquista and a deeper development of manorial management of plantations (a bit like in Aragon and with the permanance of salaried slavery) added with a North African and/or Sahelian ensemble strong enough to prevent an efficient Christian takeover of African slave in a first time (oceaning by-passing is still going to happen).

If you add to this an harsher time to takeover Mexico, if it's conquered at all, then you might have the grounds for alternative, more manorial-based productivity. But sooner or later, the sheer profits involved are going to make slavery really tempting.
 
Maybe without Bartolome de las Casas' writing, you'd have more reliance on Native American slaves, at least in Spanish colonies. There would still be the OTL problem of them dying from disease, but it might mean there would be less emphasis on the importation of African slaves.

Alternatively, and this is a really big departure, having a sizable pagan population survive in northern and eastern europe up to this point, then have the slave populations taken from those areas.
 
The problem is that the plantation economy set up by Portuguese, Castillans and Aragoneses in the XVth was reliant on slavery (altough not only chattel slavery) and a semi-enserfment to undergo a cash-crop production, essentially sugar (that was mostly implemented in Valencian region,then Grenada, as a financially interesting production (with a significant support from Italy.

While slavery in Atlantic islands, then Americas tended to be significantly harsher and bloodier than in late medieval Spain and Portugal (which still tended to takeover the old slave trade roads that Arabo-Andalusian and Arabo-Berbers beneficied from, by-passing them by sea), it set the exemple and practices which were put up to eleven in Carribeans and Mexico (especially trough the technically semi-servage but real enslavement known as encomiendas).

So, short to butterfly away the medieval market economy and first capitalism...What could we have? Maybe a significant reduction of slavery in medieval Spain, possibly but it's far from an obvious consequence, an earlier reconquista and a deeper development of manorial management of plantations (a bit like in Aragon and with the permanance of salaried slavery) added with a North African and/or Sahelian ensemble strong enough to prevent an efficient Christian takeover of African slave in a first time (oceaning by-passing is still going to happen).

If you add to this an harsher time to takeover Mexico, if it's conquered at all, then you might have the grounds for alternative, more manorial-based productivity. But sooner or later, the sheer profits involved are going to make slavery really tempting.

Can you point me to some reading on the Iberian economy in this period relating to what you mentioned?
 
So, a question I've been having as of late (and slavery and the economics of it are not a subject that I am well versed in); lets say the Cotton Gin is delayed by a few years. Enough that a Southern state or two (maybe Virginia and North Carolina?) actually abolish slavery. Then the cotton gin shows up. Would a Southern plantation that relies on wages be as economically viable as one which relies on slavery?

Basically, I guess, I'm asking: how would a free-labor cotton plantation compare to one that is run on the chattel slavery system?
 
Unfortunately there is no way, unless we scrap plantations altogether. A plantation-based economic system in the New World will inevitably need slavery to sustain itself. Indentured servitude doesn't bring as much manpower and has its own problems as seen in the Caribbean and Virginia. Enslaving natives isn't nearly as effective and lucrative as bringing slaves from Africa.
 
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