the slave trade in nineteenth-century Madagascar has recently been analysed in some detail, but since the classic studies by Piolet and Andre at the end of the last century no comprehensive study of slavery has been made. Within the last decade, however, a certain consensus on the history of slavery in nineteenth-century Madagascar has emerged, based on the writings of Maurice Bloch.2Bloch holds the traditional view that the economy of Madagascar was transformed as a result of the reforms of Andrianampoinimerina (c. 1790–1810), which led to the creation of extensive labour-intensive hydraulic riziculture and a vast imperial army and administration, and also by the massive increase in demand of the Mascarenes for Malagasy slaves from the late. eighteenth century. Imerina rapidly developed as the chief slave mart in Madagascar, and by the start of the nineteenth century domestic slavery was so widespread that slaves increasingly replaced the free Merina population in the economy. Consequently, free subjects were released to perform fanompo-ana, or forced labour, in essentially ‘unproductive’ activities, notably in the imperial army and administration. This process was accelerated when domestic slave markets were glutted following the prohibition on slave exports in 1820, from which date, Bloch argues, slave labour liberated the entire free Merina. © 1988, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.

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slavery Madagascar, Merina peasants ricefields economy fanompoana subsistence agriculture labour