This Accursed Trade

Why was there a Slave Trade?

White Gold

People in Europe had developed a sweet tooth – the trade in sugar and spices were lucrative

Trade links to the East became blocked over land so a sea route to the east had to be discovered

Instead of finding India, European explorers found the Caribbean and America – sugar and spices could both be grown there…

Need for Labour

In order to grow the amounts of sugar etc that was being consumed in Europe a large workforce was needed

Europeans tried to do the work themselves, but it was backbreaking and there were not enough new settlers to do all the chores

Europeans tried to force the indigenous people to do the work, but many of them died from European diseases or refused.

Why Africa?

Africans had been enslaving one another for hundreds of years

Arabs had also used African slaves for a long time

Africans tended to be immune to European diseases and were used to working in high temperatures

Many Africans were open to bribes                                                                    

Triangular Trade

The British were able to make more profit using a triangular method than by going directly to the Americas

Cheaply produced pots, pans, guns etc were loaded on to ships and taken to West Africa

The metal goods were swapped for human cargo (so the slaves had cost very little in real terms)

The Slaves were then taken to the Americas and sold to the planters in return for sugar etc

Sugar was taken back to the UK and sold for a huge profit.

Map of Triangular Trade

Profit margins

British entrepreneurs only needed one ship which would contain the metal goods, slaves and sugar/rum/tobacco/cotton etc

The price of making the metal goods was tiny in comparison with the money that could be made from selling sugar etc

In some cases, the African slaves were ‘bought’ for as little as a few shells – which cost the British traders nothing

Who benefited?

Cities with ports: e.g. Liverpool; Glasgow; Bristol; Douglas (Isle of Man)

Banks who gave loans to the ship owners to help them start businesses

Factory owners who made clothes from the cotton brought from the Americas

Middle Class families who used sugar or drank rum – perhaps they were even oblivious to the suffering caused by the demand they had for white gold?