History: The Slave Trade

The slave trade was a major economic and historic event. From 1501 to 1866, when international abolition laws took effect, the trade relocated an estimated 12 million African slaves (Slave voyages, 2014). The literature is quite extensive on the subject, outlining a clear image of how the slaves were traded in the colonies; their day-to-day work in the farms and mines, as well as theories of productivity, changes in price and slave-owners’ incentives and strategies. Little attention however, is paid to the supply side of the trade. There is little analysis of how a group of slaves was compiled, what were the costs of maintaining and transporting them for sale, as well as the ease of entry or exit of the business. This article will address …show more content…
Following, it will explore what occurred in the period between the capture of the slaves and the ships’ departure to the colonies, looking at slave traders’ strategies to maintaining the slaves, organizing and loading them onto the ships. Third, we will look in depth at the factors that influenced the voyage, its costs and risks. Due to the distance and length of the voyages, death, riots, epidemics and slave attacks on staff were constant risks faced by the trading company. Looking at these factors will provide some insight into just how profitable the trade was, given such high risks, and how the industry internalized them. Finally, we will look at how the sale of the slaves worked, what were companies’ selling strategies and what were the factors that affected the final price of slaves in the …show more content…
At the time, the British Empire dominated the slave trade. British ships carried 52% of all the slaves that were transported, and British colonies that employed the slaves produced 55% of the world’s supply in sugar (Kauffmann and Pope , 1999). The sheer size of the trade, from the number of firms involved to the quantity of goods shipped, is evident when one considers the fact that slave trade represented over 80% of the transatlantic movement of people (Eltis, Lewis & McIntyre, 2010). Figure 1 clearly shows the size of the trade, which was at its peak from the 1750s to 1850s. There were great companies such as the Royal African Company (RAC) that exported a large fraction of slaves, as well as many small businesses that also took part in the trade during specific points, if not during the entire process. Due to the ease of entry, there were a large number of firms operating, and slave trade was very competitive (Eltis et al., 2010). Following normal assumptions from current competitive markets, implies that profit margins for the firms involved were low to normal, but enough to encourage entry into the