The same slaveholding institution signals prosperity or stagnation by local context

Evidence

The point is that, for instance, in “the West Indies such a large proportion of slaves as were held at the Cape would have been a sign of wealth and a source of prosperity”; whereas “at the Cape slavery was the sign of an unenterprising economy …whose labour was wastefully and inefficiently used” {ibid.) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2319

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the reader’s prior material on institutions emerging where information is costly — slavery here operates as a low-productivity, wasteful labor regime rather than a capital-intensive one. — connects to: Commodity wealth converts revolutionary movements into profiteers or strengthens them depending on discipline — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1106