As pointed out earlier the Republic of Elysia has not signed the The Lagrangian-Martian Convention on Indenture, even though it has been the most important of all spacer nations in terms of demographics and economics. Despite not signing this convention, indentured servitude has not been illegal in Elysia – though many mistakenly believe this to be the case. The question is why did they not join this convention?
There are several answers to this question. One important thing to consider is that immigration to Elysia has primarily been organized by the state rather than by private individuals. In fact even before formal independence Elysian authorities had offered “free” travel and “free” housing to a wide range of professionals such as engineers, teachers, nurses, farmers and so on.
Given that Elysia was facing an enormous trade surplus – in particular due to the export of rare earth metals – and hence the state was running a huge budget surplus in the 2040s and 2050s, there were ample funds available for this immigration policy. Consequently it did little matter to the state whether these new immigrants stayed in the country or continued in their profession, also many of them quickly became naturalized citizens and hence had little reason to leave.
As a result indentured servitude, though far from illegal, was hardly necessary to recruit sufficient workers and to retain them. And with only very few of them, signing the convention would make little to no sense.
Another answer lies in the high degree of automation in Elysia. Due to the large amount of cash that flowed into the country, the government was able to set up a series of enterprises specialized in robotics and automation and soon those businesses overtook their terrestrial competitors. A side effect of the Elysian domination in the field of automation, was that other space settlements were reluctant to automation due to fear of becoming heavily dependent on Elysia.
Also the automation and robotics industry formed a strong lobby against alternatives for mechanical labour, including indentured servitude. So signing and eventual ratification of the convention became increasingly a political contentious matter as many politicians relied upon (indirect) financial support of robot manufacturers.
Why did the automation industry oppose the convention? After all, the main purpose of the convention was to protect indentured servants from abuse and consequently made it less attractive. However, by regulating this institution it was simultaneously given a strong legitimacy – if indentured servitude was really objectionable, it should be banned completely.
So by refusing to sign the convention, Elysia gave an implicit signal that the country did not approve of indentured servitude. This does, however, begs the question why did the government go a step further by outlawing indentured servitude? One argument is that the authorities did not want to estrange existing employers of indentured servants, but the legislature could just outlaw new contracts while allowing existing ones to expire naturally.
The reality is, however, more complex. Though indentured servitude has been quite obscure in Elysia, the country still dominates interplanetary transportation. And on Elysian spaceships, Elysian law applies. So if indentured servitude was abolished, no indentured servant could be legally transport on an Elysian spaceship and this would cause severe friction with other Spacer nations.
If the Elysian government would outlaw indentured servitude, the country could possibly lose its dominance of interplanetary transportation, something that would bring the state in conflict with another powerful lobby, that of the transport industry. Of course, the transport of indentured servants could be exempted from a prohibition, but that would obviously expose the entire hypocrisy of Elysian government policy.
We can conclude this rather short analysis by stating that the ambivalence of the Elysian government in respect of indentured servitude could be explained as the result of conflicting lobbies of major industries in the country.
Fascinating Future 