The research revealed that debt was a more significant cause of slavery than previously thought and indicated that up to 25% of slaves may have fallen in to slavery as a result of debt.
This might have been because they were held as security for debt, and sold when the debt was not repaid, because they had borrowed money for a business transaction or because they had been convicted of an offence and could not pay the fine that was demanded for it. It was also clear that the legal relationship between debt and enslavement was exploited in order to force more people into enslavement, just as it continues to be in situations of contemporary slavery. Understanding debt slavery in the past reveals much about processes of enslavement today.