Stick with me on this one...

The whole book may be too dense but Andrés Reséndez recently published a popular history called The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America about Native American slavery throughout the Spanish Empire in the Americas. The book is wonderful, but admittedly probably too far afield of your interests to take as a whole. However, if you were to take some excerpts the thesis of the book might help you place labor exploitation and modern-day slavery in a better context. Basically, Reséndez argues that Native American slavery involved a constantly evolving oppression that managed to permeate the empire for centuries, mutating and changing to find new avenues of exploitation as laws changed over time.

Reséndez highlights how the recent focus on new forms of slavery is myopic because it "underestimate(s) the staying power and extraordinary adaptability of slavery itself." Studying Native American slavery shows how far from a single institution, other slaveries exist as a kaleidoscope of practices suited to different markets and regions. This brings me to one of the best lessons from the book...

Since those who benefit from forced labor will always find ways to get around the law, it is necessary to deploy a very flexible and dynamic regulatory system that matches the adaptability of involuntary servitude. (p.320)

I know that seems like a long way around to your interests, but the history of imperialism and labor exploitation/resource extraction is fascinating, messy, and provides a context to how we got here. Hope this helps, and makes some sense!