Question

Examine the Slave Trade and it's effect on the world.

Answer 1

Slave Trade:-

The role that international trade has played in developing a globally integrated economy is well known. Along with growth and prosperity, trade has brought suffering and exploitation. However, nothing comes close to the brutality and inhuman suffering inflicted on human beings for such a long period as the slave trade. The misery of the African slaves formed a vital link in the trading system that connected the continents and formed the backbone of the global network of commerce.

Contrary to the popular image, the triangular slave trade that linked Europe, Africa and the New World was not a closed circuit. Rather, it formed an essential bridge between Europe's New World trade and its Asia trade. As such, trade in slaves was a crucial element in the development of the global economy in the 18th century. A brief look at the international commerce of France illustrates this point.

In the 18th century, France carried on two types of trade with its New World colonies. One was the direct trade by which France sent wheat, wine, metal objects and building materials to the New World in exchange for sugar, and, to a lesser degree, cotton, cocoa, tobacco, rocou and coffee. The other was the triangular slave trade, which the French referred to as the "circuit" trade. French ships loaded with trade goods sailed to Africa, where the goods were exchanged for slaves. The slaves were then taken to France's New World colonies, where they were exchanged for sugar and other plantation products. Both types of trade were conducted largely by barter: Ships left France carrying a small fortune in goods, but almost no money.

African slave with coffle rope around the neck, and cowry shells for which slaves were often bartered.

There was one basic economic fact - little noticed by historians - that provides the key to the relationship between the direct trade and the circuit trade. (1) When a French ship arrived in the New World with a load of slaves to be bartered for sugar, the value of the slaves equaled about twice as much sugar as the ship could carry back to France. For that reason, the most common form of slave contract called for 50 percent of the sugar to be delivered immediately and the remainder to be delivered a year later. The second delivery carried no interest penalty, and so the slave sellers were in effect giving buyers an interest-free loan.

The major problem was how to return the remaining 50 percent of the sugar back to France. The solution was provided by the direct traders. Ships coming to the New World directly from France carried products that were of relatively low value in relation to their bulk. The amount of sugar that could be obtained in exchange often filled only a third to a half of their cargo holds. The excess space was used to carry sugar back to France for slave traders. Over the years a symbiotic relationship developed between the direct traders and the circuit traders. The income from hauling sugar for slave traders provided the margin that made direct voyages profitable, and the direct traders provided a means by which the slave traders could recover the remainder of their sugar.

This relationship was destroyed in 1722 when the French Company of the Indies banned all private traders from the slave trade. This act not only affected the private slave traders, but also the direct traders because the company would not pay them to carry the excess sugar. The mayor of Nantes responded angrily:

"Two major bankruptcies have just been declared in Nantes, and we greatly fear that there will be more. The returns from our colonies have shown a loss ever since the Company of the Indies began to enforce its monopoly...the colonies will fall along with the trade of our cities. (2)

The move jeopardized the company as well. Because it operated as a closed economic circuit, it had no way of retrieving the excess sugar. Sometimes, in desperation, the company actually sent empty ships to the Caribbean to bring back sugar, but this practice was too inefficient to be sustained. It was estimated that the company recovered only about a third of the money it invested annually in the slave trade. Because the company's board of directors could not figure out a way to maintain its monopolistic practices and still conduct the slave trade at a profit, it voted in 1725 to abandon its monopoly and open the slave trade to private traders. The symbiotic relationship between the slave trade and the direct New World trade was quickly restored.

Slave trade's effect on the world:-

The Transatlantic slave trade radically impaired Africa's potential to develop economically and maintain its social and political stability. The arrival of Europeans on the West African Coast and their establishment of slave ports in various parts of the continent triggered a continuous process of exploitation of Africa's human resources, labor, and commodities. This exploitative commerce influenced the African political and religious aristocracies, the warrior classes and the biracial elite, who made small gains from the slave trade, to participate in the oppression of their own people. The Europeans, on the other hand, greatly benefited from the Atlantic trade, since it allowed them to amass the raw materials that fed the Industrial Revolution to the detriment of African societies whose capacity to transform their modes of production into a viable entrepreneurial economy was severely halted.