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In the ancient world, slaves were a significant percentage of the population. Jews too were sometimes sold as slaves, due to wars, kidnappings, or tax debts. Other nations ridded themselves of the burden of redemption when their people were enslaved. For example, if a Roman soldier was taken captive, he was abandoned: his wife was considered a widow, his possessions were taken by the government, and no one bothered to redeem him.
However, among Jews, the mitzva of redeeming captives was considered the priority of interpersonal mitzvot. Donating money to help free a captive was considered the epitome of charitable giving. This was because a captive or slave suffered everything a poor person did – hunger, thirst, cold, and degradation. Additionally, his or her life was in danger, as the law in many times and places allowed masters to beat their slaves to death. Therefore, the Sages mandated that we spare no efforts to free captives. For example, the marriage contract (ketuba) obligates a husband to spend everything necessary to redeem his wife should she be taken prisoner.
If this mitzva was meant to save people from slavery, why is it referred to as redeeming captives (pidyon shevuyim)? Because the time when one could realistically save a person from this bitter fate was before a captive was brought to the slave market to be sold. Once sold it was often too late, as a master was not always willing to give up his slave.
Despite the tremendous value placed on redeeming captives, the Sages forbade paying more than the going rate in the slave market. This was “in order to repair the world,” i.e., to prevent governments or criminals kidnapping Jews indiscriminately just to extort exorbitant amounts of money from the community. Since the obligation to redeem captives was combined with the caveat not to pay inflated prices, Jews throughout history succeeded in redeeming a large percentage of those taken captive.
