Before transatlantic slavery, European colonial powers used contract workers. After Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807/08, they sought new markets, especially in Latin America, and needed a wage-earning population. By the 1820s–30s, the idea of wage slavery emerged. In 1834, the British introduced the apprenticeship system in their colonies, a compromise with slave owners, until it collapsed in 1838 due to resistance. Still, it inspired the Indentured Labour System, bringing hundreds of thousands of Asian, African, and European contract workers to Caribbean plantations between 1833–1873. This lecture explores how brutal labor systems shaped global market development, focusing on Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Curaçao.