JO CAl,l t t,tsM /\Nt) st,Avt!

RY
who saw the grcar national emoluments which accrueat from the slave tradc. "We shall take things as they are, and reaon irom rhem in Lheir present srare, and;ot from lhar whrrein \re could hope rhem ro b. . . . We cmnor think of giving up the siave-bade, notwithstanding my good wistres tnrt lt iouja be done. Lare!, perhapi some noble and benevolenr Chrisrian spidt mighr rhink oJ changing the sysrem, .,which, as rhings are now crcumsEnced, may nor be so ea5ily brouehr aboui."r2, aelore. rhe American Revolurion Engli,h pubiic opinion in general accepred the view of the slave-tradei: ..Tho. ro raffc ln human creatures, mry ar 6r$ sighr appar ba$arous, in_ numan. rnd unnanrali yer rhe traders herein have as much ro plead in rheir own excusei as can be sa.id for some orher of rjade namjly. the odolmtoge ot it.. . . tn a word, llanclT uade proceed rrom th$ benefirc, far ourweighing alt. either real or pretended mischiefs and inconveniencies'-.' rx
AccoRDrNc

'3'
BRITISH COMMERCE

AND THE TRIANGULAR TRADE

A.

THE TRIANGULAR TRADE

m AD,4M SMrrII, the discovery of Amedca and the Crpe route to India are "rhe two greatest rnd mosr imporrant cvcnts recorded jn rhe hisrory of rnankhd." The imponance of rhe discorery of Anericaiay not in (he precious'merals ir provided but in the ne.!v and inexhaustible marker it afiorded for European commodities. One of iLr principal efiects was ro "r.ri<e the mercantrle sysrem to a degree of splendour end glory rvhich it could never otherwise have atained to.,,l It gave rise to an enornous increase in world trade. The seventeenth and ighteenth centuries r,vere the centu es of tmdq as the nineteenrh century was the century of production. For Britain that trade was prirnarily the triangnlar trade. In r 7 r8 William Wood said thfi the slave tmde was "the spring end prreft whenc the othe$ flow.", A few yeals later Postlethwa).t dscribed the slave rrade as "the 6n,r prjnciple and foundation of all the rcst. the mainspiing of rhe machine which sers every wheel in

In this triangular trade England-France and Crlorid America equally---+upplid the exports and the shipq Africe the human mrchandise; the plantations the colonial raw materials. The slave ship sailed from the home country with a cargo of manufactured goods. These were exchangd at a Fofir
5r

52 CAPITALISM AND SLAVERY

on rhe coasr of Alricr for Negroes. vho werc rrrdcd dn rhe plamacions. ar anorher profit. in e\change for a catgo ofcolonial produce to be raken back ro ihe home counrt. As rhe \olume of trade incrased, the tdangular rrade was supplmentcd, but never supplanred. by a dleur trade berueen home country and (he Wesr Indirs. exchanging home manufacrures directly for
colonial produce.

COMMERCD AND THE TRTANGULAR TRADE 53

as much as a similar Prson in the Wood reckoned that a Proft of seven home country.3'William shillings per head per annum was suficient to enrich a country; each whit mrn in the colonis brought a proft of over seven pounds.s Sir Dalby Thomas went further- --very pelson employed on the sugar plantatioirs was r3o times more valuable ,to Sngland than one at home,lo Professor Pitman has estimated that in 1775 British West Indian plantations represented a valuation of Rfty millions sterling,lt and the sugar planters thernselvs put the figure at seventy millions in r?88.1'In 1798 Pitt assessd the annu income from west Indian Plantations rt four million pounds as compared with one million from the rest of the world.l3 As Adam Smith wrote: "The profits of a sugar plantation in any of our West Indian colonies are generally much $eater than those of any other cultivation that is known either in Europe or America."l' According to Davenant, Britain's total trade at the end of the sventecnth century brcught in a profit of {r,ooo,(n. The plantation trade accountd for J6oo,moi re-export of plantetion goods fr:o,ooo; Europeen, African and Levant trade l6oo,oooi Frst India trade 4joo,ooo; re-export of East India goods

to England, twenty times

The trian$lar (rade rhereby g"ve r uiple stimulus to British industry. The Negroes were pu'rchascd wirh Brirish manufactures; ffansported to the plantations, they produced sugar, cotton, indigo, molasses nnd othr tropical products, the procssing of which crared new induslries in England; 'while the maintenance of the Negroes and their o*Irers on the plantations provided another market for British industry, New England agdculture and rhe Newfoundland fisheries. ily r75o theie was hardly a rrading or a manufaccuringio\tn in Fnghnd u hich wrs nor rn some wrv connecred with the triangDlar or direc( colon;al rrade.{ The pro6rs oblajned provided one of thc main srrearns of rhar accumul ion of capiral in Engl.rnd which financed the Industrial Revolur;onThe West Indian islands became the hub of the British Empire. of immense impnnance to rhe grandeur and prospriry of Enghnd. lr w*s rhc \egro slaves u ho made ttrese slgar cotJnies the mo\r prcious colonies ever recocded in rhe whole annals of imperialism. To Posrlethsalr (hey were ..rhe fundamenral prop and suppon' of rhe colonies. ..vatuable people' whose hbor supplied Brinin wirh all plantarion prod;ce. The Brirish Empire was "a rnagnifceni superstructure of American commerce rn.l nrval powcr on an Afr;can foundarion...d Sir Josirh Child esrimated rhrr every Fnqlishrmn in rhe Wsr Indies, 'wirh the ren blacks rhrt uJrk v"irh him. accounting what-they eat, us and wear, rvould make employment for fou; men in Fngland."6 By Davenanr's compurationone per5on jn the,islands..\ hire or Negro. wa, a. prohtable as r.,.i in Eng_ land.r Another wrircr considered rhai every famiJy in rhe Wit Indies gave rc 6ve scamen ;d ma;y mo.e ani_ _employment ncers. manutacrurers and trade<men. and rhat every white prr_ son in the islands brought in ren pounds annually clear piofit

Sir Charls lvhitwofth, in 1776, made a complte compilxtion, from ofrcial records, of the import and export trade of Great Britain for th years 69?-1773. His book is invaluable for an appreciation of the rclative importrnce of the Caribbern and mrinland colonies in the British Empir of the eighteenth century. For the yar 1697 the West Indian colonies supplied nine per cent of British irnports, the meinland colonies eight -West per cent; four per cent of Bridsh exports went to the Indies, slightly undff four per cent to the rn3inlandi the West Irdies accountd for seven per cent of Britain's total trade, the mainland for six pr cent. In 1773 the West Ind;es still mainrained their lead, though as an xport marker they had become inferior to the mainland colonies vith their larger white popdation. In that vear nearly one-quarter of British imports came from all Caribbean areas, one-eighth from the entire mainland; the Caribbean consumd somervhat over eight per cent of Brit-

5+ CAPITALISM AND

SLAVERY
as

COMMERCE AND THE TRIANGULAR TRADE 55

ish. tnde, Laving ouc of accounr. rhe;efore, rhe plrnrarion colonies on rhe mainland. Vnginir. Maryland, Grotina, Georgia, ihe uiorgllar and Wesi tndian rades represrnted neefly one-seventh of total British trade during ihe years

ish exports, the mahland si,rteen per cent; fifteen per cent of Bdtain's total uede \r'as with the Wesr Indies, fourreen pr cent with the mainland. Taking the totals for the ye*s r7t4-t7|3l and including in those totels trade with new acquisitions, foreign colonies tempordily occupied by British forces dudng the \rar, o! forcign colonis in general, we get the foltowing picture: One-fifth of Bricjsh imporrs cafte from ihe Caribbea-n. oneninrh from rhe mainlandr six per cent of Brirish exporrs went to $e C-aribbean, nine pe. cent to (he mainlandi rwelve per cent of Brilaint roral foreign commerce was accounred foi by the Caribbean. ren per cenr by rhe mrinland. During rhese'same years one-half pr cenr of Bri(;h imporrs came from Africa" two per cenr of Brirish exporrs wenr ro Alrica, while AJrican trade represenred nearly one and a half per cent of torsl Brir-

New England; Barbados and Anrignr combined meant as much to British cxporters as New York; Montserrat and Nevis cornbined were a better market rhan Pennsylvania. British exporrs ro Africa during rhcse 1e"rs rucre only onc-ren(h less thrn those to New Englxnd, British imports from Africa onequalter more than those from New York and more thm double
those from Pennsylvania.l6 Mercantilists werc enthusiasric. The triangrlar trade, and the associated la"de with the sugar idands, because of the navigation

t7t4-1777-

from the.bread coloniesi rhe exports ro Bart rdos $ere sUghrly larger. Linle Barbados, w;rh ils 166 square mites, was Jonir more to British capitalism (han New England, New york and Penrsylvania combined. In rZzr British imporrs from Jamaica were more rhan five times rhe combined impom from rhe bread coloniesi Brirish expons ro Jamaicr wirc nearty onethird larger rhan (hose ro New Engl$d and only stighlly less rhan rhose ro New York and Pennil tvania comtiined-. Frir the years t7t4-t?7j British impors from Monserrar were rhree times the imporrs from Penrsylvania, imports from Nevjs were almost double rhose from Niw York, impom from Anrigua weFe over rhree dmes those from Ne\r Enltand. tmporrs frim Barbados were more rhan rwice a, large-rs rhose from the bread colonies, impom from Jrmdca nearlv six rimes as lrrse. For rhe seme yerrs Jamaica as an erpon market was as valua6le

The arnazing value of these West Indian colonies can more grapbically graphically be presenred by comparing individual West Indian islands with individual mainland colonis. In 160' British im1697 Bririqh ports from Barbados were 6ve times the combind impors

they encouragcd, were more valuable to England than her of tin or corl.1? These were ideal colonies. Bur for them Br;tain vould have no gold or silver. c\cepr whrt shc rcceived from illicir comnerce wirh rhe Spanich colonies. and rn unfavorable balance of trade.13 Their tropical producrs, unlike those oJ the northem part of the mainland, did not compcte with those ol the home cnunrry. Thel ,howcd lirrlc sign of that indu.rrirl dcvelopmenr which ,rai rhc con5ranr fear whre rhe mainland was concerned. Their large black poputation was an effective gurantee against aspirations to indipcndence.l' It all cdmbined to spell one word, sugar. "The pleasurc, glory and grandeur of England," wrote Sir Dalby Thomas, nhaj been advanced rnore by sugar rhrn t'y anl oiner commodity. woot
mines

philosophy

There rvas onc qualification-monopoly. The economic of the age had no room for the open door, and

colonial trade was a rigid monopoly of the homc country. The merc|ntilists lvere adamant on this poin!. "Colonies," wrote Davenant, "r-re 3 strength to their nother kingdorn, rvhile they are under good discipline, whilc they are strictly made to observe the fundrmntal lavs of their original country, and while they are kept depcndcnt on it. But othcrwise, they are worse than membcrs lopped from rhe hody poliric, bc;ng indeed like offensivc arnr, qresred from a n ion ro Le ru,ncd rgain,r ir ls occrsion shall serv.",r The colonies, in return for thtu prosperity, owed th mother country, in Postlethvayt's view, graritude and an indispensable duty 'to be immcdiately dependcnt on their orjginal parent and to nrake their interesi subiervient

j6 cAPTTALI5M AND sLAvERy

It wls on these ideas that the mercanrile svstem was etected. The colonies uere obliged ro snd rheir uaiuable producr ro England only and use English ships. They could duy nothing bu( tsritish unle\s the foreign commodiries were 6rsr tahen to England. And since, as duriful children, they were to rvork for rhe greater glory of rheir parent. rhey veri reduced ro r srare ol permrncnr vasqalage and con6ned sotcly to the exptoication of their egricultural resources, Nor a nail,;ot a horseihoe, said Chatham. could be manufacrured. nor hrrs, nor jron, nor refned srgar. In retuln for this, England made one concessionthe.colonial prcducts werc given a monopoly of rhe home
The keystone of this mercantilist arch was the Navigarion _ Laws. 'English measures des;ened for English end,."1t The Navigationiaws were aimed airhe Durch, :rhe fosrer frrher\," as Andrews calls rhem, of rhe earl) Brirish colonies.,r who suppl;ed credit. delnered goods. puichased coloniat produce aia transported it to Europ, all at mor atrmctive tates than the British could offer in open market. But th laws were aimed also at the Scotch and lrish,t and Scotland's attenrpt to set up an independent Africrn Company * aroused grert fears in England and was largely responsible for the Act of Union in r7o7. The sugar islands protested against this monopoly of their trade. Those who, in r84o, were loudest in rheir opposition to free trade, were, in r66q the most fervent advoc;tes of free tlade. In 1666 the govemor of Barbados bgged ,,leave ro be plain with His Majesw, for he is come to where it pinches. . . . Free trade is the life of all colonies . . . whoevei he be rhat idvised Hiq Maieny ro rerrrain and rie up his colonies is more a merchant rhJn a good subied. ,? His succe\sor repcated rhe wafting: ye must make rhcir pon .r free pon for d[ people to uade wirh them rhar w;ll com;. The ordtiarl ttr'ars taken "ay for nw planrarion( I humbl) conceile is a littje erroneous. My Lords the Act for Trade and Navigation in Fngtand will crteinly in tyme bee the ruine of atl his Maties -forreigne plantations.",3 The Lords of Trade decided to ,give hii a cheque for upholding ihi< maxim of free rrade.' and censurcd him severely for "rhese dangerous princ;ples which he enrer-

COMMERCE AND THE TRIANGVLAR TRADE 57

tains contmry to the settled laws

prent advantage of it."

of the kingdom and the aF

Such subversive ideas could not possibly be tolereted in an

xge lvhich herrd demandsthatthe Navigation Laws b strerched

to confine the provision for 'English built" ships to ships built of English timber and using British made canvas, and which passed legislation thlt the deed be buried in English wool and Nll srvants and shves on the planrations be made to weer English wool, to encourage England's formost industry. NegroeE th most important export of Afdca, and sugar, the most impotant export of the West Indieq were the principal commodities enumerated by the Navigation Laws. But the \l/est Indian sugar pl|rntenr never accepted this ]imitation on theii trade. Ultimrtely in r7l9 they were granted a modificxtion of the Navigation Lavs, but in so lirnited a form and only to such poor foreign mrrkets in Europe-south of Cape Finisteffethat its advantages lvere nugatory- But even this concession, badly shorn though it was, aroused the rvrath of English merchants. It would, said a Liveryool pririon bfore the measure bccame a law, "be highly prejudicial in mxny instances to the interest and manufacrures, to the trrde and navigation of Great Britain in general and of this port in panicular."3o One hundred yean later the same conflict was to be fought out, more bitterly, between monopoly and free trade, mercantilism and leissez frire. Thc lntagonists wcre the srme, British Eaders and industrialists on the one hand and West Indian sugar planters on rhe orher. Bur British capitalism. now all for monopoly, was rhcn .ll for free lradc: the 1Vcsr Indirn ihnrers. on rhr other hand, forgot nll rheir nohle fre trade sentiments and clung tenaciously to the principlc of nonopoly which they had formerly condemned, as making them "the merchants' slaves."3t

B. SHIPPING AND SHIPBUILDING

This xtcmal fiade naturally drew in its wake a tremendous development of shipping end shipbu;lding. Not the least of the advantages of the tdangnlar trade was its contdbution to the wooden walls of England. There was less distinction between a

j8

crlpr t 4LrsM 4ND sLAvERy

pnaft on thc sas.'!s ,ln 1678 rhe C,ommhsionen of Customs rcporied rhat rhe planrarion rrade was one of rhe grear nu...ri*,.f,h. Fntand cnd one-of rhe grcarest "h,p;i;; branchcs of irs 11-.:fl:".f ag.,n rhe su8ar cotonies ourdisrrnced the breai More.Insrish "hi-ps ::r:lj:i maintrnd colonie\,rired ,o rhe susar cotode\ rha.n ".rg; ro al rhe combinc.l. t"",0* if,. coronrs cmployed r 14 ships, of rr.6o0 ro
sarlecl

T:.:h.I:l'T ,nd a man_of_$,r in those days rhan rherc is ,,11 was an ll""*; l::E ":r,s"i"",J,,bJ.admirabre nursery for rhe merchanrmJn :ejTen.'h: ;r-: ot w:. rnd.adrmnrc ofthcshve c'de ";;;-,;;;;; ;;r"i;t,;;; *cued ;;;; uourct annilJl.,re rhr mrrinc.ty *rirg ir !r.rir"rr.; " Li,erpoot dave tradei wrore:-..tt is "i a matter :.jl:1. "r..1. rm?onrnce ro rhis kingdom_when ever ir is :;^,.#,Tl* .?vrD,4 r,r nav rmporrance of rhis kinqdom is abolish.d wirh r( ftr n'omenr our ffrgg will gradur ; ce.se ro ride l um-

in foreign rradc.:?ricr**" ,_n lJi_c_:ngrceJ ensac:q in foreign rrade qu;rtrupr"ar-,

Io \Ve* Indies, I r:.ooo lon\ ro the marntand.3 .rhe The west Ind;an rrrde ;n rToo emptovcd one+enrh ot British shio_ rimcs

*:t"*:l :i:4r,;;r,;:, ind

r

;f

Tro

r714. r:?.ooo ron\ of Briri\h sh;pFng

Tj:,li,il," Jiii ;;il:::

COMMERCE AND THE TRIANGULAR TRADE 59 for-the construction of vesels to be employed in the slav r radc.ao in $ hich hrtf of Liverpootr $ito^ v c;e engrged.al The shipp;ng indu\ry was divided. a. indu.rr/ii general, on rhe que\rion of rhe organizarion of the stave"rradel Sorne .eclion< farored the Royat Alricrn Company. others rhe free trJder<.s But on rhe.luestion of rbolirion tire hdusry presenred a unired fronr. arguing thJl at,olirion woutd srrike at rhe veru roois of.Brirain s nav;l and imperial ,upremacy. The fint ri,crion ^f L;\erpoul ro rhe act "i rz88 icSrrtaring the capaciry of.lavers wcs thrL ir left r: mrqers of staie ,hipi. a7 -rt . uni lro.eamen unemploycd. qirh their funrilies ani thc trade"men ocpenoent morc rndrrecrty on rhe rrade uirh Africa.{l ln addirinn to rhe sc.rmcn. rherc wre rhe anciltarv rrades. ^ LxrPenrel\. piinrer\ and bort-builders. rradermen ard anisr.ns connecred wrrh repain. e.Juipmenr rnd tading: comml::ions, wages. dock durics. hsurances alt dcpendcd"prn\ on rhe ships rrading to Af ricr. To suppty thc,hips. thcrl v eie in, 774 hlreen.roperics in l.iverpoot.i'fhere f.* p.opf. i",f,i to$n. ir wrs clrinred. rvho woutd nor "ir. be aflccrej. dlrecrty or indirecdl by abolitionJs

::YPllq muh;plied IoreAlrrca ruelrc

_d,,h" ."";g. ;[;;:

""d;;;;ili; ,r,;p.'cr_i"s
.n"i

son. one

lo.l)e sravc rrude. cornbining capaci.u .,Jiir, ro rcduc monatiry. \h.y ipr"rlghr.'i" "t sei\es srrve-(rudcrs. The ourstandirig
of rhe
targcs(

in_ Enghnd - .Shipbuilding Ve*eh of received r direcr srimutus from the rrrrngular rrrde. a parricul.rr rrDe $crc cnnnrucre.t

,r*a I_;*"."t

firm wx brtrer and Daw_ crporrcn oislave. ro rhe Wcsr Indiel

"n *..;;;;_

in

rrade. ln a p.rt ruhose *i, r,,f,.,f ir"a., Witnam Karhbone w.r: c curiosity in ^,. his refrrsat ,.,"pptilr;,
inr

$.ulTS".::,lxg;,:i,lT.:t'yltfl ".J,,*;i:1.*: iii:.$ :':{T cschewed rhc :::rrx*sr} i ffi r;l;i: out apparently.hc i!'*;::;T dxve
im el)
connccred

rions.ao The Newfoundhnd 6shcry dependcd ro a cinsiierable e\tent on rhe annual exporr of dried 6\h ro rhc Wen Indies, the refuse or "poor John" 6sh. ,6c lor no orhcr consumprion.-r? .wsr A Indian rrJdiiion ux rhereLy fostcred. Importea saltea cod js sr;ll roda) r normal anJ favorite dish in alt bur rhe vell-ro-do We;lndian families; uhcther i( is srill ..6r for no other consumpdon k nor known.

The sugar islands mrde yr anorhcr conrriburion ro the growrh of shipping. The pecutiar rconoml devetoped in the We,r Indies concenrrrred on crporr crops l hile lood u.as im_ poncd..Mo* imponanr of i ;he fo,d supptics wr< 6.h. ,n irti(le dear ro rhe hcffr ot every mercanritki. becJuse ir Dro_ vidcd ernployrnen' for ship rnd rrrining for L"*. ".r..". pr$ed in Fngl:rni 16 6n,"ou'"tc rheionsumprion of 6.h. :/:r -e, Fridal rnd Sarurdal ..t fi,t, d").. FiJh was an ;m_ "..e "prn ponant irem ol rhe dicL ot the,ta,c, on rhe ptanrarions. and the EJlglish he[ing trade found its chief market'in the sugar ptanta_

60 cAPrrALrsM
docks

AND sLAvERy

(']OMM}..RCF, AND AHE TRIANGULAR

TRADE 6I

Thc increase in shipping subjected the eighteenth century of England to inrolerable strain. The number of ships nting the port of London trebled between rToj aod r?9j,
th tonnrge quadrupled, exclusive of the smaller vesscls engaged in the coasting trade. The warehouses on rhe qua)s were inadequate for the imports. The colliers could not be discharged and the pric of coals rose enormously. Sugar was piled six or eight hogsheads high on the quay, increasing the danger of 6re

vere owned not by merchants but by mechrnics.re Customs duties rose from Iro,ooo in 1614 to !ll4,ooo in r78j, Wharfe
dues, payable on every vessel xbove sixty tonsi doubled between

r745 and t77 5.50

It

was the slave and sug.r trades ivhich made Bristol the

scond ciry of England for the 6rst thre-quarters of the eighteenth century. "There is not," wrote a Iocrl annalist, "e bdck

and encouraging thefts. annual depredations

A great machine of

organizd cdme

was devloped, involving some ren thousand people. Th total

at the docks were esdmated at half a million pounds, half this sum from vessels from the Caribbean. The Wst Indien merchants set themselves to grapple with the problem. Thy organized a special force of constables to cope with the thefts, and set up a general register of laborers discharging West Indian ships. They lobbied in Parliament and eventuallv secured en act authorizing the construction of the West India Docks. For twenry-one yeals they wrc given a monopoly of Ioading and unloading vessels ngaged in the West Indian trade. The first srone was laid in r8oo, and the ceremony was followed by an eleg"nt entertainment for the notrbles prsnt, et which one toast was appropriately drunk to the prosperity of the West Indian colonies. The docks were publicly opened in r8or, the 6rst ship being named after the Prime Minister, and the second laden with six hundred tons of
sugaf..3

in the cit)' but what is cemented with thc blood of a slava Sumptuous rnansions, lur:rious living, liveried menials, were the produce of the wealth made from the sufferings end groens of the slaves bought and sold by the Bristol merchants. . . . In their childlike sinplicity they could not fcel the iniquiry of the merchandise, but they could feel it lucrative."61 An analysis of a committee set np in 1789 to oppose the movment for aboli tion of the slave trade shows that among the mmbers elcted were nine merchants at some time mayors of Bristol, fve who were sheriffs. seven had been or were to be Masten of the Society of Merchant Venturers.5, When Bristol was outstripped in the dave trede by Liverpool, it tumed its attention from the trianFlar tmde to the direct sugar tride. Fewer Bristol ships sailed ro AJdce, more u'enr direct to th Cribbean. In rToo the port had forty-six ships in the West Indian trade.ra In 1787 there wer thirty Bristol vessels engaged in the dave trade, seventy-two in the West Indian tr|dei the former averaged r4o tons each, the latter r4o.e In r 78 8 Bristol had as mrny ships in the trade to the l,ccward Islands. and almost as many in the trade to Janaic4 as in the trxde to Africa.st Nearly onc-third of the tonnage wbich entercd, more than one-third of thrt which saild from, the port was engaged in the trade with the sugar colonies;e and it was the amiable custom in Bristol to celebrate the arlival of the frst sugar ship each year by a gift of wine at the evense of the fortunate owner.67 The West Indian tlade w's worth to Bdstol twice xs much as all her other oveEas commerce combined. As late as r 8lo nve-eighths of its trade was with the West Indies, and it was said in 1833 that without the West Indian tlade Bdstol would be r fishing pon.!3 Bristol had a West Indian Sociery of its ovr. The Toq,n

C, GROWTH OF THE CREAT BRITISH SEAPORT TO1VNS

The development of the triangular trade and of shipping rnd shipbuilding led to th growth of the great seapdr towns. Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgoiv occupied, as seepons and Fading centers, the position in the age of trade that Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffeld occupied later in the age of industry. It $/as said in 1685 that there was scarcely a shopkeeper in Bristol who had not a venture on board som ship bound for Virginia or the Antilles, Evn the parsons Blked of norhing but trade, ,nd it was satirically atleged that Bdsrol freights

6: c,tprrer-rsu AND sr-avDRY

Cruncil distributed municipl funds for the relief of distress by 6re in the $gar islands. It was customary for youngq sons and iunior members of West Indiu 6nns to
caused

COMMERCE AND THE TRIANGIJLAR TRADE 63

spend some years on the plantations bfore entedng business at home. Bristol members of Parliament in the eighteenth century were fftquently associated, in one vay or another, with the sugar plantxtions, and so imponant did the islands become to

of l5r,ooo for the years r75o to l648dro in r78j.s Dock duties increased two and a half tims betwen r75r and r77r,m The population rose from 5,ooo in r7m to 34ooo in r773.By rTToLiverpool had become too famous a tovn in the trading world for Arrhur Young to
receipts mared from an average

to

1757

pass it

by on his travels over England.cT

Bristol that for the fust half of the nineteenth century Bdstol was always represented in Parliament by a \rysr Indian----a Baillie, a Protheroe, or a Miles. James Evan Baillie lhoned his fellow citizens not to lay the r{e xt the root of their own pmsperity by supporting the abolition of slavery in the islands.6s His own prosperity was also at stake. The compensation paid to the family for thir ownership of numerous slaves in Trinidad and British Guiana exceeded J6z,ooo,@ Bristol prcsented e determined opposition to the equalization of the sug.r dutis which gave the coup de gdce to th Wst Indian monopoly. Thercafier Bdstol's trade with the West Indies declined mpidly. Tn r847 forrl per cenr of the pon\ tonnage wrs bound for the Wesr lndics, and ships rerurning from the islands represcnted a mcrc elclen per cent. In r87 r no ship lefi Brisrol lor Jamaica. and rhe inqard tnnnage from rhe isl,rnds consriruted less rhcn two per ccnt of the arlivals. Brisrol's ffxde with the islands did not revive until the end of the ninteenth century lvith the adveftof the banana in the world market.61

The abolitionist Clarkson argled that the rise of Livrpool

rv.s due to a variety of causes. among $ hich were rhe sair t-rrde, rhe prodigious increase oI rhe population of Lanca\hire. and rhe mpid and great extension of the manufactures of Manchester.$

This is a prrticularly flagrrnt

horse.

case

of pufting the cart before the

What the west Indian trade did for Bristol the slave rmde did for Liverpool. In 1565 Liverpool had r38 householders, seven streets only were inhrbited, th port's merchant marine emounted to twelve ships of 22t tons. Until the end of the seventeenth centtlry the only loc.l event of importance was $e siege of the to*.n during the Engtish Civil War.e In collccting ship money Strafford assessed Liverpool ar 6ften pounds; Bristol paid two thousrnd.o3 The shipping enrering Liverpool increased four and a half rimes between r7o9 and r77r; the outvard tonnage six and a brlf times. The number of ships owned by the pon multiplied four rimes during the
same priod, the tonnage and

s|ilors over six times.s Custofils

crpitrl accumulation of Liverpool which calld the population of Lancashire into existence and stimulated the manufactures of Manchester. That capital accumular;on came from Lhe slave rrade. whose importrnce was apprecjated more by contemporarics than by lrter historians. It was a common saying that several of the principal streets of Liverpool hd been na-rked out by the chains, and the walls of the houses cemnted by the blood, of the African slaves,o and one street was nicftnamed .Negro Row."?o The red brick Customs House wrs blazoned vith Ne$o hexds.?r The story is told of an actor in the town, who, hissed by the audience for appearing before them, not for the first time, in a dnrnken condition, stNdied himself and declared with ofiended maiesty: "I have not come here to be insulted by a ser of .ivretches, every brick in whose infemd tolvn is cementd wirh an Africen's blood."7' It wrs estimated in r79o that the r l8 ships which sailed from Liverpool for Africa represented a capital of over a million pounds. Livrpool's own probeble loss from the abolition of dre slave trade wrs then computd at ovr seven and a half million pounds. Abolition, it was said, would ruin the town. It would destroy the foundation of irs commerce and the firsr cause of the national industry and wealth. "wllar vain pretence of liberty," it was asked in Liverpool, "can infatuate pople to run into so much licentiousness as to assert a r.de is unlawful which custom immemo al, and various Acts of Parliament, have ratiwas only th

It

fied and given

sanction to? " ?.

r
64 cAPITALrsrr
to
AND SLAVDRY COMMERCE AND THE TRTANCULAR TRADE 65
This dpndence on the dave tmde has proved very awkward sensitive and patriotic historians. A generation, rrgued a Bristol hhtorian in r9j9, which has seen the spoilation of Ethiopia, the brutrl dismembcrmcnt of China and the rape of Czechoslovakia, cannot aFord to condcmn the slave trade.76 In

D.

THE GOODS IN THE TRTANGULAR TRADE

the opinion of a Liverpool town clrk, Liverpool hrs bome more than its share of thc stigma attaching to the slave trade. The indomitable peneverancc and energy of its people lvould have ensured xn equal prosperity in othcr directions, as effectively if not rs quickly, had the slave trade not existed, aild the ultimate success of the poft would perhaps hrve becn retarded, though not prcjudiced or impaired, without the slave trade.?6 According to yet another Liverpool rvriter, there rvas nothing derog.tory in the fact that their ancesrors had dealt in "niggers," and the horro$ of the drve trade were exceeded by the hoffors of the I-iverpool drinL trafrc. But, after all, "it was the capital mad in the African shve trade that built some of our docts. It was the price of human Resh and blood that gave us a start." Some of those who made thcir fortunes out of the slave trade had softhearts rnder their waistcoats for the poor of Liverpool, rvhile the prodts from slrve ftrding reprsented "an influx of wealth which, prhaps, no consideration would induce a commercial conmunity to relinquish."?7

It is necessary now to trace the industrial dcvelopment in Iingland which was stimulated direcdy or indirectly by the goods for the triangtlrr trade rnd the processing of colonial
The widesprcad ramifications of the shve tradc in English industry are illusrrated by this cargo to Africi for the ycar 1787: cotton and linen goods, silk handkercHefs, coarse blue and red rvoolen cloths, scarlet cloth in gmin, coarse and 6ne hats, worsted cxps, guns, porvdcr, shot, srbers, lcad bars, iron bars, pewter basons, copper kettles rnd prns, ircn pots, hardrvarc of vrrious kinds, rnhen and glass ware, haifund gilr leather
trunks, bexds of var;ous t inds, silver and gold rings and ornainents! paper, coarse and fine checks, Iinen ruffed shirts and caps, British and foreign spirits and tobacco.?e

This sundry assortment was typical of the shve trader\ cirgo. Finery for Africans, household utensils, cloths of ,Il k;nds, iron and other mtah, togerhr with guns, handculis nnd fetten: the production of these stimulrted capitalism, provided employment for British hhor, and brought grext profits to England.

t. Ivool
Until the trcmendous development of th cotton industry in the Industial Revohtjon, wool was the spoiled child of English manufacturs. It figured largly in all considerations affecting the slave trade in the century after 1680. The cargo of a slave ship rvas incomplet without some woolen manufacturs --serges, says, prpetuanos! arangoes and bays. Sometimes the cloth was called aftr the localit_v lvhere it \1'as 6rst manufactured. Brid*'aters represented Bridgewater's intrst in the colonid mffket; Welsh Plaincs, a woolen cloth of the simplest weave, w:s manufaccured in western England and Walcs. A prrliarnentary cornmitte of r69j voiced the public sentiment thlt the tlade to Africr was an enco[ragement to the woolen manufacftre.so Among the argrments put forward to prove the impgrtance of the slave trade, the exports of wool

Not until the Act of Union of r7o7 vas Scotland allowed to participare in colonial tmde. Thxt permission put Glasgow on the nnp. Sugrr and tobacco underhy the prosperity of the
rown in the ighteenth century. Colonial commerce stimulatd the gouth of nw industrics. As Bishop Pococke'wrote in r760, after a visit to Glasgow: "the ciw has above all others fclt the advantnges of the Union, by the Wesr India trade which they enjoy, rvhich is vcry great, espcially in tobacco, indigoes and sugar."?3 Sugar rcfining continued is an importrnt industry in the Clydc Vrlley until the eclipsc of thc Wcst Indim islands in the middle of the nineteenth century.

66 cAPrrAlrsM
;f

AND SLAVERY

COMMERCE AND THE TRTANGULAR TRADE 67

woolen merchants of the kingdom complained in 1694 that restrictions had Fatly lessened thet sales. Similar ptitions were prsentd against the monopoly by the woolen taders of London and the woolen mercMnts of P]'anouth in r7ro, the rvoolen dealers of Totnes and Ashburton, the woolen manrfacturrs of Kidderminster, the Merchant Adventuren of Minehead engagd in the woolen manufacture in r7rr.s Other petitions to Parliament emphasized the impofance of dre colonial market for the woolen industry. In 1690 the plrnters of Jamaica protested against the company's monopoly as a discouragement to trade, especially the woolen uade. A pctition from Manchester in r7o4 revealed that English wool wlls txaded to Holland, Hamburg and the East for linn yam rnd flar, which, vhen mxnufactured, were sent to the plantations. The merchents and traden of Liverpool in r7o9, the merchants and inhabitants of Liveryool in I 7 r j, conrended that the companyt monopoly was detdmental to the woolen industry. Petitions from the industdal North in rTJJ disclosed that Wake6eld, Halifax, Bumley, Crlne and Kendal were all inter$ed in the manufacture of voolen goods for Africa and the West
Indies.37

uhich that trade encouraged were ahvays given first4lge. A pamphlet of r 680, illusuating the Public utility and advantages

die African tradc, begins with "the exPortation of our native woollen and other man-ufactures in greit abundance, most of which wer impoftd fornrerly our of Holland . . . wheftbythe wooll of this nation is much more consumed and spent then formerlyr and many thousand of the poor peopJe imployed."l Similarly. the Ro) al African Company staied in a Pe(ition in 1696 that the slave rrade should be supponed by England. because of rhe expons h encouraged of woolen and other English

prn in ihe long and birrr conuoversy $aged berween the iloyrl African -ompany and rhe separate trrders. Those from

The woolen manufacturers of the kingdom took a Prominent

whbm the company made ir" purcha'es argred lhar the interloors caused disturbances and dislocation of the uade, and lhat the trade declined when rhe company s monoPoly was modified. In 1694 rhe clothiers of Wirnel petirioned Parliament in favor of the comprny's monopoly. Th cloth wor*ers of Shrewsbury followid juit in rrgt. and the weavers of Kidderminster rwice in ihe same year' In rToo the weavers of Exeter and the woolen trtdesmen of London, and in r7r3 several tradesmen interested in the voolen manufacture, also took the
company's side.33

But the weight of the wooln interests was on the whole thown on the side of the free traden. The comPany's monoPoly enabled it ro'screw up rhe trad\men to a limjred guant;ry and price, lcngth. breadrh and u eighr."& MonoPoly meanr one buyer and one seller only. A searchr in the custom house testifed that when the trede was open there was a greater exoortarion of wool. Accordios to rhe tesrimonv of two London inerchants in 1093. the monipoll had reducid rhe exports of wool by nearlv one-rhird. Sufrolk exponed:5.ooo woolen clorhs a yearr two years after the iocorPoration of rhe company, the number declined to 5oo.$ [n 169o the clothiers of Suffolk and Frsex rnd the manufacture$ of Eleter Petitioned ageinst the company's monopoly. Exeter petitioned again in t69+ t6g6, tlog, r7rc md rTrr in favor of free trade. The

mind. Any one farniliar with British West Indian society today will appreciate the strengrh of the tmdition thereby fostered. 'lvoolen undergarments are still common in the islands today, thongh more among the oldff gnration, and suits of blue serge are still a sign of the wll-drssed mrn. Li}e the Englishman and unlike the Nonh Amedcan in the colonies, the Caribbean colored rniddle class today still apes the fashiom of

That woolcn goods should figlre so prominendy in tropical markets is to be attributed to the deliberate policy of mercantilist England. It rvas argued in r73:, on behalf of the mainland colonies, that Pennsylvania alone consumed more woolen expons from England than all the sugar islands combined, arld New York more than any sugar island except Jamaica.s Woolen goods were more suited for these colder climates, and the Barbrdian planters prefered light calicoes which could be easily washed.e But wool was Englarrd's staple, and climatic considemtions werc too great a rcfinement for the mercantilist

r
68 cAPITALIsM AND sLAvERy
the home country in its preference for the heavir materials which are so ridiculous and uncomfonable in a tropical en-

COMMERCE AND THE IRIAJ\CULAR TRADE 69

soon establishd a monopoly of the African mdket. Brawls, tapsells, niccanees, cuttaneq buckshaws, nillias, salmporesthese Indim cloths were highly prized, and yet another f,owerful vested interest was drawn into the orbit of the slave trade. Manchster tried to compete with the Esst India Company; bafts, for exanrple, were cheap coaon fabrics from the East Irtr copied in England for the African market. But the backwardners of the English dyeing procss made it impossible for Manchester to get the fast red, gren and yellow colors popular on the coast. l\{anchester proved unable to imitxte the colors of these Indian cotrons, and there is evidnce to show that the French cotton manufacturers of Normandy were equally un
successful in larning the screts of the East.

But cotton later superseded wool in colonial markets as it did in domestic. Of a total export of four million pounds of woolen mmufacturs in r77:, less than three per cent wenr to the West Indies and less than four per cent to Africa.m The
best customers were Europe and Amcrica. In rtaj the woolen industry wrs slowly beginning irs belated imitation of the tech-

nologicrl changes which had revolutionized the cotton industry. In its progress after r78J the tdrngnlrr $ade and West Indian markct played no appreciable part. z. Cafuon t4anula.lure \ryhat the building of ships for the transport of slaves did for eighteenth century Liverpool, the manufacture of cotton goods for rhe purchase of slave< did for eighleenlh cenrury l\tanchener. The fir* srimulu, ro the gro$ ah of Cotronopoii" .u-. from the African rnd Wcsr Indirn merkerr

The grorvth of Manchester vas intimatety aisociard wirh the gro\r'th of Liverpool, itj outlet to the sca and the world marker. The capiral accumulctcd by Lircrpoot from Lhe slave rrade poured inro rhe hinrcrland ro fcniiize rhe energies of Manchester; Manchester goods for Africa were taken-to the coast in the Liverpool slave vessels. Lancashire,s foreign market meant chiedy the West Indian plantations and Africa. The export trade was fr4,ooo in 1739; in 1759 it had incrcrued nearly eight times; in 1779 it was l3o3,ooo. Up to rTToone-third of this export went to thc slave coast, onc-half to the Americrn and West Indian colonies.ll It lvas this EerDcndous dependence on the triangrlar trade thar madc Manchester. l,ight woolen goods were popular on the stave coast: so were (illi(, provided rhey were gaudy ,nd had t gr flowed. But rhe mosl popular of all rnaterial. ua, cotton goiod,. as rhe African rvrs already accustomed to coerse blue an-d rvhite cotton cloths of his own manufacure, and from the beginning the sfiiped loincloths called "annabasses" wer a tegnlai featuie of eyerv slave trader's cargo. Indim terftiles, banned in England,

ccntury are unreli.ble. The Europern and colonirl wars of r7rfr748 and the rcorganization which the Africrn Cornpany was undergoing up to r75o caused r slump in the cotton tradc to Africa, and when it revived rfter r75o Indian exports were

l\{anchester was more fortunate in its tlrd in cotton and linen checks, though figures for the first half of the eighteenth

inadequate to satisfy the dernand. English manufacturen made full use of this opportunity to push their own goods. In r75r

the export of cottonlinen checks alone from England was fs?,oooj in r76t, at the end of the Seven Years' ltr/ar, it stood at the exceptionally high figure of l3ou,ooo, but after 1767 remained between fro,ooo and Jzoo,ooo, when Indian competition again proved formidable. Available strtistics make comparison btwen rhe value of English cotton checks and Indian cotton pices exported to Africa irnpossible, as the formff are given by value and the latter b)' quantity. But the growth of Indian and English cotton expons to Africa will give st)me indicition of rhe importance of the African market. Total cotton expons stood at !:146oo in r75r; in r763 they rvere more thrn doublei in r 77, they 1vre more than foul times as great, but as a result of the American Revolution they declined to lr9t,9oo in r?8o. The effect of the war on the slave and plantation markets is at once apparent. By r78o checks had ceascd to be an importrnt paft of the cotton industry. But it was not the \r'ar alone that was to be blamed.

70 CAPITALISM AND :T::.:::'_::111 ",*fy.

SLAVERY

the African market onry lt hen rndien For prantarion inarket cheap_ :::..,T".*:::-T1i.:_.,. by r78o rhe ionon ness was essenriat, and Sear. *"" creasrngly expensive as rhe supply lagged behind ,h" ur rnc new rnven hons.yr

COMMDRCD AND THD TRIANGULAR TRADE 7I

o*

b;.;;;;ti_ d.;;d

onlyi rhe-manufacture or rllese goods represenred an investment oi l,oo.ooo and g"ve empioyment rSo,ooo men, women and'chjldren.s -The -ro rrench manutacru-rers, impresed with rhe qualirv and chean_ ,1.* sFciat goodi called Guinea ciorhs'produced in ff_^? rqancnsrer, were sending enrs over to grt pariiculars. ard extndrng open offers to Manche*er .r;"fr:,*.*, ;;i; Britain.abolish the dave ffade. ro seE up in Rouen where rhev be^g-rvrn every encouragemenr.oi tn addition, Manche;_ Iou.rd (er n r7E8 lurnished for rhe Wef lndirn rrade more rhan r3oo.ooo aflnualv in manufactures. v hieh gave employmenr to manv
thousend.-.s

B^ur.accordhg ro esdmares given ro rhe pri\.y Council in exported an-nualty to Africr goods woni rroo.ooo, arEo.ooo of rhis lor Negroes

:l::,^y"i:T,".

|rgc fonune, and wrs described in his obituary notice as ..the rrrrst considerable merchant and m*ofr"torlr in Manchest.r. rernarlable for grear abiliries rnd srricr jnregriry, and for ,,rrirersal bcncvotenci cnd usefulnes ro rnankind..:Two modem s,r'itcrs have left us this description of the man: .,Icarus_like "'r rg roo high." he emerges as ..rhe fir5r considerable financier rl,it.rhe Manchesrer rrade produced, and ceruinly ar one of the rflrliest cases of a Mrnche*er man who was conierned at once rI m:nufacturing and jn hrge scale financirl and commercia.l \rrrrures in rheCirv rndrhrd,d .r Other crses empha,iza rhe significance oI Touchet.s career. lli,berr Diggles, Afr;can shle $ader of Liverpool, was rhe son "f.a Manche\rer linen draper and brorher of'anoiher. In ,747 ., Mrnche.rer mrn uas in _prrmrrship with nro L;vcrpool men r voyrge to Jamaica. { le.rdrng Manchesrer firm,;he Hib_ "' owned sugar plantrrions I'cns, in Jamrica, and ar one iime rrpplied checks and imirrrions of Indian goods ro rhe African ( umpany for rhe slave rmde.o3
Manchestr received
trade.

ready been noticed in the

-, srav Eaders rhere were nor the close connecrions that have al_
case

li*.:"

*:

conon manufacturers of Manche$er and rhe

of the shipbuitder. Li;.;p;;. "f of such ionnecnons exisr. Two

If it

wel|-known conon manufacrurers of Lancashire, Sb Wiliam razackefly and_ Samuel ToDcher. vere both members of rhe Merchanrs ffading :^.:fl."y 9, tllYi'rs. presented ro Africa- Fazackerly, a Lon_ rn rhe case of the separate traders ::nj:_,]:J or itnsiot and Liverpool againsr the African Como,"" i" r7:6.00 Toucher, membe, g.e"r Van.l,.st.r .i;J:;;;;; "fi Lirerpoor on the governing b.dy of ;h: lll1":_ilp,ljlill.9, period rzJr-r7r6. (ompan, dunng the He wa concemed in r,tyrqpjnC o I rhe e\pdition which captured Senegat in rZrs :'lc, ano hed hrrd ro gr rhe conrracr fo. ul.*"lting ,t prrron of Paut's unsuccesfut spin"ing ,r"t i"i ,:t,. ,rooj.. revoluoonrze rhe cotron indusrry. accusid openlv of anem.r_ |ng ro monopotize rhe impon of raw conon, Tou,cher added? ::^T{.'r:'*:in rhe a-panner.hip, wirn his brotrren, in atoui rrrenry stups West tndian trade. Touchet ai.a, f.a"i"i a

tsut, r'u o excepdonal insrances

i"r"rlJl;

rhe planrarions. irs manufacturers depended in rum on rhe \uppty ot rhe raw ma(eriat. Manchesrcr.s inreresr in the islands was twofold. The raw mrrerial came to fngland in rhe scvenrecnrh and .rglrteenrh cenruriec chieBy from two sourcec, rhe Levanr and rhc Wcst lndhs. ln (he eighren(h cenlury rhar tndian compri_ rion \rhich proved roo formidaUe for MinchesLer on rte itave eoav and which qas (hrcarening lo swamp cven rhe home mar_ Let.wirh Indirn goodc was effecrir ely smashed. as far as Eng_ land vas concemed, by rhe prohibiijve dudes on tndian iri_ ports inro l.nghnd. The 6nr ircp wrs rhercby taten by which rhe morherlrnd of co(on becrme in the ninirecnrh .rnd rwen_ tieth cntudes the chief market of Lancashte. In the eightccnrh cenrury rhe mcasure grvc Mrnchesrer a monopolv of lhe home mrrler. and privare Indian traders began ro imion raw cotron for rhe Lancashire tactorics. A coipetiror rJ the 'he West Indian islands had arisen, to be follorved lajer by Brazil,

supplid th goods needed on the slave coast and on

a double stimulus from the colonial

i-

r
7r cAPtTALtSM AND
SLAVERY

COMMERCE AND THE TRIANGULAR TRADE 73

irs ;mport and export marketE drerefore, cotton was beginning to reach out to the world rnarket. The sunny Caribbean sky rvas rnarred by a barely prceprible but ponentous cloud, and thc genrle West Indian breeze wrs rising ominously. It hcrdded the approaching political hurricme which, to alter lidmund Burke's dcscription of thos visitations of nature comrtxrn in thc West Indies, humbled the sugar phnter's pride if it

whose prcduct by r 78l was recognized as clearly superior to all the other varietis. But in the ly eightenrh cntury England depnded on th West Indian islands for btween two-thirds and three-quarters of its raw cotton. Crtton, neverdreless, was essentially , secondary consideretion in the West tndian planter's outloob and however much the planten as a body looked with jealousy on its cultivation in India or Africa or Brazil, it rcmained a second-

did oot correct his vices.

ery consideration. In opposing the rctention of Guadeloupe in 1761, the West India interest measured their argumenrs in terms of sugrl, while, significantly, a contemporary pamphleteer pointed to its cotton exports to England as a reason for keeping rhe and.e. But Briri'h consumption vas \mall rnd the West Indian con(riburion uelcome. ln r764 Bri(i,h impons of raw cotton amounted to nearly four million poundsi the West Indis supplied one-hatf. In r78o Britain imponed more than six and a hrlf million pounds; the West Indies s!pplied two-thirds.lm In r?81, the West Indies, therefore, still dominated the cotton uade. But a new day was dawning. In the phcnomenal expansion of an industry rvhich was to clorhe the world, a few tiny islands in the Caribbean could hardly hope to supply the necessary raw material. Thefu cotron was the long-staplc, sca-island variety, easily cleaned by hand, limited ro certain areas, and therefor expnsive. When the corton gin pcrmittd the culrivation of the \hon-.caple corron by faciliraring rhe trsk of clernjng. rhe center of graviq .hifred from rhe i'Lnds ro the mainland to meet the enormous demands of the nw machinry in England. In 1784 a shipment of Amrjcm cotron was seized by the Liverpool customs authorities on thc ground that cofton, not being a bona fide product of thc United Srates, could not legally be transponed to England in an Amer;can vessel. It was an vil omen for the -West Indians, coinciding, as it did, with another significant development. During the American Revolution Manchester's cotton exporrs to Europe almost trebled,lol The Revolution irslf cratd another important market for Manchester, the independnt United Statis, at a time when the cofton gin was iust around the comer. For both

j.

Susat Refnins,

The procesing of colonial raw materiah gave rise to new industrics in England, provided funher employment for shipping, rnd contributed to r greater extension of the world market rnd internrtionrl trade. Of these ra.rv materials sugar was precninent, and its manufacture grve bifth to the sugar refining industry. Thc refining proces transformed the crud brown
strgar manufactured on the plantatjons into white sugar, which

v$

durible and crpable of preservrrion, and could be easily

hirndled and distributcd all over the world.

The earlicst rcference to sugar re6ning in England is an order of the Privy Council in 1615 prohibiting aliens from crecting sugar houscs or practising the an of refining sugarJo, fhe imp,,flrncc of rhe indu.rry increasd in prnponion to its production on the plantations, ind as sugar became, \rith the spread of tea and colTee, one of the necessitis of life instead of dre luxury of kings. About the middle of the ightenth century th rcfincries in England. Each refinery was estimated to provide cnrployment for about nine men. In addition the distribution of the rcfincd product called into exjstencc r number of subsidiary trades and required ships and wagons for the coastal
and inland tmde.ro3

-Richard,

The sugrr refining industry of Bristol was one of the most imponant of the kingdom. It \res in Bristol in r6i4 thar the diarist, Evelyn, sarv for the fiIsr time the method of manufacturing loaf sugar,loa and in the annals of Bristol's history sugar figures frcqucntly rs r gift to distinglished visiro$ ro the to$.n son of Oliver C,xomwell, and King Charles II, in

r
74 CAPITALISM AND
SLAVERY COA,IMERCE AND

THE TRIANGULAR ARADE

75

retum for which the king knighted four of the to.rvn's mer-

'inridad

In 1799, thcre were twenty refineries in Bdstol, and the town did rnore refining than London in proportion to size and population. Bristol's sugar lvas considred superior in qur]ity, its proximiw to the coal supplies for fuel enabled it to sell cheaper thrn l,ondon, rvhile it found in lrcland, the whole of South Wales and West England the markets for rvhich it was destined by its geographical location.l@ Sug rcfining loug remained one of the staplcs of Brisrol. The reEners of the city peti.iond Parliament in 1789 again$ the Nbolition of the slave tmde on which 'the rvelfare and prosperity, if not thc actual existence, of the \Vst India Islands depend."lo? In rsrr there were sixten refineris in thc town. whose connection

and Jamaica, for which he received compensation to rhc lmount of lr7,8jo.1r1

try

ccascd oDly torvards the cnd when banrnxs rplaced sugrr.tof

vith this indusof rhe nineteenth century,

Some of Bristol's most prominent citizens were connectcd rvith the sugrr refning busincss. Robcrt Aldvorrh, sevententh ccntury alderman, $'as closcly identificd with rc6ning, while he lvas at the same time a mrchant who built trvo doclts to accommodate the incrcascd shipping.l@ William Miles was the outstanding redner of the eightcenth cntury. His creer is typical of manv orhr crses. Miles camc to Bristol with thrcc halfpence in his pocket, rvorked as r portr, xpprnticed himslf to a shipbuildcr, saved fifteen pounds, and srilcd to Jrmaicr as a ship's carpenter in a nrcrchantman. He bought x cask or two of suqar \lhich he sold in Bristol, at r huge profit, and with the proceeds bought anicls in great dcnrind in Jamaica and rcpcated his fornrer investnrent. l\'liles soon became very wealthy -Ihis was thc and senled in Brktol as r rcfiner. humble origin of one of the grcatest fortuncs rnade in thc Wcst Indiin trade. Tak;ng his son into prrrnership, Nlilcs w:rs wcrhhy enough to give him a check for Jroo,ooo to nible him to marry the daughtcr of an aristocratic clcrgrrnan. The clder M;les becnme an alderman, and died rich and honotcd; thc younger continued ,s x Wst Indian merchant drling chiefly in sugar and slavs, and at his dcrth in 1848 left propeny vxlued at morc than a r)lijlion.llo In rSll he wrs in possession of 66j slaves in

Thc frequenr rsocirLion of Glasgow uirh rhe tobncco in.l'Ftry is oDly a prfl of rhc rru(h. Th pro(p(riry of rhe rown rr Lhe eighreenrh t cnrury rvas due ar Jearr as much to irr sugar bu.ines. Sugrr iefining dared back ro thc sccond half 'rfining (,I rhe sevenreen(h crnrucy. The We,ter,ugcr-house wrs buitr in 1667, follo\i,ed bv the Easrcr in 1669, and shoftly aftr the sou'h *ug.r-hou.e cnd inorhcr. Yer .rno(her folto$;d in r7or. Iitrt Glasgow labord under the disadvanrage rhat before r7o7 d;rcct trde relations with the colonies weie illegal, and Glastus s sugr refincrs uerc forced to depcnd on Biisrol for their rrw m.rrerirl. 81 rhc Acr oI Union rnd a happl rccidenr this Unsr(;(fac(ory siru ion $as brouqhr to rn end. Two Scotch officcrs. Colonel Wiltirrn Macdiualt, c.rdct of cn ancient family, and_ Major James Mittiken, white quartcred in St. l(itts, lvood and won two heiresses, the vidolv Tovie and her Jrrghrer. owners of grca, $ rg,r. ptrn' a, ions. The miss;ng Iink l.rd been found. I he r-rri, al of rhi hcire+cs rnd their husbrnds ncant that Glasgow became one of the leading ports of entry T,'r the crrgoc. of Wc* tndian sugrr. In the ici year of th'e
I'appy cvenr a ne\r rchnery \vas sccup.l12

1bc majoriry ol Lhe r;6neri(. qere tocrred in and around thc capirrl- ighrv comparcd with Bdstol's twcnty. In 1774 thcre u ere cight refineries in Liverpool. nne of rhem. r hc house of Brancl(ers. r firm aho engrg(d in rhe.lrte rrrde. being one ,'l (he mosc evrcn,ire in rhe !thole kinsdojn.,13 There-ucre "rhcr\ in Mrnchc.rer. Che.rer. Lanca,hiri. Whi(chaven, Newcrsrle. Hull. Sourhampron and Wrrrington. lr may wcll be r\l,cd rvhv the rc6ning of the raw \ugrr va nnr done ar rhe source. on rhe plrnt.tions. The diva,;on of 11hnr. bcrween rhe agricuhural opcrarion\ in rhe rropicrt rlirnare.and rhe ind srricl operarions in rhe remperrLc climrre. hm.survived.m this day. The originxl rason hadnothing to do rvith the skill of labor or the presencc of natural resouices. It wrs (he re$rl( ol (hc detiberare poticy ot rhc morhcr counrq. sug,:r refining in rtie istands corresponded ro rlie .fhe L,an on bAn on iron and textile manufactur on the mainland. Shonld

7
76 cAPITALTSM AND
SLAVERY

COMMERCE AND THE TRIANGULAR TRADE 77

were intett on maintrining a monopoly pdce io the home

thev have refiners in Ensland or the planradons? asked Sir Th6mas Clitrord in rr7r.:'Fire ships gi for rhe blacks," was his answer, "and not above two if rcfined in the Plantations; rnd so you dstroy shipping, and atl that belongs to it; and if vou lose this edvantaee to tnsland, vou lose all." Hence the 'fr.auy aury placed o-n refinei sugar'imPorred in(o England. four'timei as much es upon the brown sugar. By this policy England was called upon for a larger number of c.sks for the raw suger, more coals and victuals wre consumd, and the national revenues incrcased.tl" Davenant\ Pleas for Permission
of colonial refininglt5 fell on deaf ears.

The friends of the plantels warned them of the "fatal and wretched error" they wre making, for "if the British plantations cannot, or will noq afford sugar, etc., plenty and cheap cnough the French, Dutch, and Portuguese do, and will.'rlr? There were not wanting writen, as early as r73q who urged the govemment to "open th sluices of tbe lavs, and let in even the Frnch sugar upon them, till they would serve us ar least ,s cheap as our nighbo$ are serv'd.Dll3 In r7t9 Jamaica requested assistance from the mother counEy. The Cruncil of Trade and Plmtations issued a clear xnd unmistakable waming Jamaica had trvice as rnuch land as all the Leeward Islands combined, yet the exports of the Leeward Islands exceded those of Jamaici. 'From whence it would naturally follow that not one half of your lands are at present cultivited, and thrr Great Brirain does not reap half rhe benefir from your Colony. which she might do if ir were fully senled. 'rr0 The planten would not listn. In the eighteenth century, they did not have to. The refiners of London, Westminsrer, Southwark and Bristol protested to Parliament in 1753 against the sellishness of the planters and the "most intolerable knd of a tax" represented bv the higher price of British sugar. The re-

is simifcani that a similar struggle \vas raking place in France. resulting in a similrr victor) ior the mercrntilists.
Colberr had permitred the refining of sugar in rhe French West lndies. and raw and refned sugar (rom rhe islands paid the same duty in France. But in 168, the dury on refined sugar wx douiled. while rwo years larer. under penrlry of a 6ne of 3ooo livreE it wes forbidden to erct new refineries in the islands. A decrec of 1698 was evn more drastic The duty on mw sugar from the West Indies was lowered from four to three livres per hundredwighq while the duty on refined sugar was increased from eight to twenty-two and a half livres. This lattff 6gure wes the same duty charged on refined sugar from foreign lands: "the drastic nature of the prorction afforded the French re6ne$ as against thh compatriots in the colonies becomes ap-

Ir

The Ngar refining interst of England rvas encoumged by such legislation. It did not always see eye to eye with the Planting interest on whom it depended for supplies. Under the mercantile system the sugrr planters had a rnonopoly of the home market, and foreign imports were prohibitd. It was therefore the policy of the phnters to restrict production in order to maintain a high price. Their legal monopoly of the home market was a powerful weapon in thir hands, and they used it mercilessly, at the expense of the whole population of England. While the price of sugar was being naturally forced down in the world market by the increase of sugar cultivation in the French, Spanish end Ponug!s colonies, the British plant$

6ners urged Parliament to mrke it the interest of rhe sug.r planten to pmduce more raw sugar by increasing the arca under cultivation. They .ivere careful, however, nor to pretend to 'tet ourselves in competition with th inhabiEnts of all the sugar colonies, either for numbers, wealth, or consequence ro the public." P.rliament siderracked the issue by passing resolutions about the encouragemenr of vhite setders in Jamaica-l! Another crisis in relations berween produce$ and pmcessors developed dudng the American Revolution. Imports of suger dclined by one-third between t77q tnd r78o. Prices were high, and the re6ners, in distress, petitioned Padiament for relief in the form of the admission of pdze suger, Reading betveen the lines of the evidence takn by the parliamentary committee on the subject, we see rhe connio of interesrs between refinel and planter. High prices benefited the planrr,

/ll . At,ttAr lsl\'r ?\ND sl.AvERY

incrased supPly vhich the pldltcrs would not, or could not, give. If they would not, make ihem; thc refiners of Bristol recommnded "a salutary lau" which would "mxke it the interest of the British sugar colories, to extend the cultivation of their lands, in order to enable them ro rahe a Jrrgcr produce. md to *nd greater qurnriries of sugar to Grat Britain, and thereby become more useful to their mother country, irs trade, navigation, and revenue."121 If they could not, buy elsewhere-the French colonies, for example. "Was I a redner," said one witness, a wholesale grocer, "I should crtrinly prefer St. Domingo sugrrs to any other." '. The chasm was yawning at the fet of the sugar planter, but, head held proudly in the ajr, he vent his rvay mumbling the lesson he had bccn taught by thc mcrcantilists and wlich he had leamed not wisely but too well.

(]OMMDRCD AND 1HE TRTANGULAR TRADE 79

ll,nrc and hin'self stripped, branded and enslaved with his o*'fl vi(1i s, to the great ;irth of the sailors.l" In r76t wo disrillcrics wcre estrblished at Liverpool for the express purpose

wl'ilc rhc rcfinen wanted an

supplying ships bound for Africa.u6 Of equal imponance to rhc mc.c'ndlist was th. fact that from molisses could be obrrrincd, in addition to rum, brandy Nnd low wines imPortd l'rrn France. The distilleries wre an important evidence of Itri\rols inlcresr in (he sugrr p'antJrions. and mrn, were the i('cmirds qhich rhcy sent to Parliamenr in defence of their inrocsts and in opposition to the importation of French brandies.

,'l

4. R*m Dittillation Yet another colonial raw material gave birth to yet snother English industry. One of the important by-products of sugar is molasses,-from which rum lrray bc distilled. But rum never attained the importance of cotton, far less of sugar, as a contribution to British industry, partly, prhaps, because much rum was imported direct from the ishnds in its fnished statc. ImPons from rhe islands increased from 58.ooo g:llons in I7: I to l,o.ooo in r73o. In 1763 the ngure stood at one rnd a quaner million gallons and was steadily over two million between 1765 and
t77g.t

lli$op Berkeley voicd the Fcvailing feeling when he asked xcidly, in strict merc|rntiljst langnage, "vhcthff if drunkenness It a nccessary evil, men may not as vell get drunL with the growth of their owncountryl" 'fhe eighteenth century in [ngland was noto ous for its rlcoholism. The popular drink wxs gin, imrnonalized by Hogrrrh in his Gi, I-are. A classic advenisement of e gin shoP in
Southvark read: "Drunk for a pennn dead drunk for twopcnce, clean straw for nothing." Gin and rum contendd for pride of place. The West Indian planters argled that the rum they produced rvas equal to one-founh of the value of all their other Products t-o orohibn the sale of rum rvould rherelorc be to ruin thcm. .rnd'drivc the people to foreign cubsritutes. T}e Plsnrrs xpressed the hope that the suPPression of the evils occtsiond by ihe excessive use of spirituous liquo* would not entail the dest|uction of the sugar trade.l'?? As they saw it, the question was not whether people shoutd drink, but whxt they should drink. Gin, argled an anonymous wdter, ,was "vasrly rnorc destmctive to the human frame" than lum. "Gin is a spirit too fiern acrid, and inflameing for inward use-but. . . . Rum is a sPirit so mild, balsamic and benign, that if its properly used and attempered it mxy be made highly useful, both for the relicf and regalement of human nature.'l23 This Itas a stmnge descdPtion of the spirit rvhich the Brrbadians more appropriately nicknamed "KilI-Devill." -West Indi.n Against the plante$ it was conteoded thrt the rum tmde was too unimportant to permit thc continuance of a

Rum was indispcnsrble in the fisheris and the fur trade, and as a naval ration. But its connction with the tritngr:lar trade was morc direct stil!. Rum rvas an essenti Part of the cargo of the slave ship, particularly the colonial American slave ship No slaie trader could afford to disPense with a crrgo of rum. Ir was profirable to sprecd a tr.tc for liquor on (he cor'r' The

Necro dealcrs vere olicd qirh it, $cre;nduced to drink rill the'y tost tleir rca,onl and ihcn rhe brrg"in was struck.l'?a one slave dealer, his bag full of the gotd Pxid him for his slaves, stupidly accepted the slave captain's invitdoon to dinner. He was made drunk and awoke next moming to 6nd his money

80

cAPraALrsM AND sLAVERY

COMMERCE AND THE TRTANGULAR TRADD 8I

glaring enormity which tended to dstroy the health and morals of the people of Grcat Britain.ls It is not unlikely that other considemtions vere involved. Rum competed with spirits mede -fhe West India interest wrs thercfore at odds with from corn. the English agricultural interest. The sugar planters charged thrt dGtilling from corn tcnded to raise the price ofbread. This concern for th poor consumer of brcad was touching, coming

lo the Frcnch planters, and molasses was one of the principal ircrrrs in thxt trade betwcn mainland and the foreign sugar
colonies which, as the sequel showd, had far-reaching conse(tucnccs for the British sugar planten.

wanted the poor to sPend mor money on their sugar, and it anredatcd by a hundrcd )'ears a similer but more sign;ficant conflict betwecn English farmers :rnd [nglish indusrralists, over chcrper brexd or lower wages for the rvorking classes. "llotasses" embitterd the relrtions bctven West Indian sugar planter and English landlord as it embitterd relations between planter and mainland colonist, and the wesr India interest was rhvays quick to recommend its substitution ;n England vhenever there wxs a grain shonage, they said, but in rcality whcnever there was a glut of sugar. "Swet gentlemen!" wrote an rnonymous champjon of the barley counties in r8o7. "They havc sought r vry far fetchcd argrmcnt in support of their saccharine cause"il3o and Michael Sadler, in r8tr, opposed the idea: "A wholesome beverage might be made from that articl, but thc people of England did not litre it."131 The real enemy, however, of the West Indian distiller was not the Engthh farmer but thc Nerv EDgland distiller. The New England tmders refused to purchase trVcst Indian rum and insisted on molasses, vhich they themsclvcs distillcd, and sent to Nervfoundtand. the Indirn tribes, and abovc rll Africa. Thc mrn trade on the slave coast became a virtual monoPoly of New England. In r77o New [ngland xports of nrm to Africa rep rcsented over four-ffths of the total colonial expon of that verr,13, and yet rnother important vsted intrcst drw its sustenance from the triangdar trade. But here, too, lay the seed of future disruprion. French West Indian molasses was cheaper than Bitish, because French distilling wes not permitted to compete vith the brtndies of the home country. Rather than fed their molasses to their honcs, they prefeffed to sell it to the ma;nland colonists. The latter therefore tumed
as

it did from extortionists vho

The slave cargoes were incomplete rvithout the "pacotille"' rhe sundry irnrs and gevga$,s vhich appaled to the Africans'
k)vc of bright colo$ and for which, after having sold their fellows, they would, late in the nineteenth cenrury, p t with thcir land and grant mining concessions. Ardcles of glass and l)eads wre always in dmand on the slave coast, and on the plantations there was a grat demand for bottles. l\4ost of these ifticlcs were manufactutd ;n Bristol.ls One shve dealer received r fine Negro fronr a prince in return for thirteen beads o{ coral, half r string of amber, twenty-eight sili-er bells, and three pairs of bracelets for hh rvomen; in achnorvledgment of rhis liberrUty, he presented to the plincc's favorite a present of some rows of glass beads and about four ounces of sclllet rvool.l3' tndividually these items lvere of negligible valuei in rhc ,ggregrte rhc) consrirured i tradc of great impor'rnce. so essential a prrt of the slave transtctions that the word "Prcotille" is still commonlv used in the Wst Indies today to dcnote a cheap and tawdry bauble given as compcnsation for objects of great value.

6. The Metdllurgical lltdustries

.Slave trading dernanded goods more grusome though not a whit less seful thrn woolcn .nd cofton nrrnufacture$. Fetters and chains and padlocks were neded to fastcn the Ngroes more securely on the slave ships and thus prevent both mutiny

and suicide. The prrct;ce of branding the slaves to identify them required red-hot irons. Legal re$rlations prescdbed that on any ship designed for Africa, the East Indies, or the West Indies, "three-founhs of their proportion of beer was to be put in iron bound cask, hooped with iron hoops of good substance, and well wrought iron."ls Iron bars were the trading medium on a large pan of the African coast ,nd were quivalcnt to four.

/ 82 cAPrrAr,IsM
AND SLAVERY COMMERCE AND THE TRIANGUI,AR TRADE 83
h.s been . . . some preiudice to thc iron-tradei for the consLrmption of iron rvare, in those islands, is more or less, as their

copper bars.136 Ircn bars conslituted nearly three-quarters of the value of the cargo of the Suallow in 1679, nearly onequartr of the cargo of the Mir! in r69q nearly one-6fth of a
slave cargo

t.dc for sugar is bettet or worse."lc An old historhn of the

city hrs left
us a picture of Birmingham's intcrest in thc colonixl system: "axes for India, and tom|hawks for the natives of North America; and to Cuba md the Brazils chains, handcutrs, rnd iron collars for the poor slaves, . . .In the primeval forests of Amerjca the Birmingham axe struck do\rn the old trees; dlc c!ftle pastures of Austmlia rang with thc sound of Binninghun belk; in llast India and the Wcst they tended the 6lds of sugir cane rvith Birminghm hoes."!a Along with iron vent brass, copper and lead. The exporrs of br$s pans and kettles to Africa datcd back before 1660 but incrcased with free trade after 1698. Thcreafter Birmingham l)egan to expon hg quantitics of cutlery and brass goods, and throughout the eighteenth century British goods etrecrively sustrined comperition with forejgn in colonjil markets. The Cheadle Cornpany, founded in North Sraffordshire in r7r9, \o^n hecame one of rhe lcr,ling bra\s and copper concerns in [ngland. It e$cnded the scope of its operations to include the br$s wirc, "the Guina rods" and the "manelloes" (metxl dngs rvorn by the Africrn tribes) uscd in the African uade. The company's capital increascd eleven times between 1734 and r78o when the company was reorgxnized. rrstrrting from srnall beginnings . . ., it becxme one of rhe mosr impoftant, if nor the most important, of rhe brass and copper concerns of rhc cightcenth ccntury." According to tradition, ships sriled to Africa rvith the holds full of idols and "manelloes," while the cabins rvcre occupied by missionuies-"an edifying cxample of a material good in competition \vith an immaterial one."!s The Baptist Milh of Bisrol produccd a prodigious qurntiry of brass which, dmlvn inro 1v;rc and fonned into "bartery," was extensively used in the African trade.ta6 The Flolywell urcrks, in addition to producing copper sheathing for thc Liverpool sHps, mrnufnctured brass pans for the West Indian stlgar and Last Indie ten merch4nts, xnd all v.rieties of cheap rnd gaudy bmss instruDcnts for the African tradc.lar Brass pans and kcttles were exported to Africa and the plantxtions, md in one list, after the heading "brass pans," \re rexd "difto large to wash

in r733.r3? In 168, the Royal African Company was

exporting about io,ooo bals of iron a year.r33 The ironmasters, too, found r useful market in Africa. Guns formed a regnl.r part of every African cargo. Birmingham became the center of the gun trade ss I'ltnchcster was of the corton trade. The struggle between Bimingham and London over the gun $adc \vrs merely another angle to the struggle for free trade or monopoly vhich we htve already noticed for the slave trade in general berween the caPital rnd the outports. In r7o9 and ITIo the gun rnakers of London petition;d in favor of the Royal African C-ompany's monopoly. The Birmingham grtn makers and iron mrkers threw their weight and influence rgiinst the company and the London interests. Three times, in r7o8, r7o9, md r?rr, they petitioned against a renewal of the company's monoPoly which had been modified in r698.1s Their trade had increased since then and they Ieared a renewal of the monopoly, which ivould subject thir manufactures "to one buyer, or to anyone monoPolizing society, exclusive of all othen."ls In the ninetcenth century Birmingham grrns were exchanged for Africrn palm-oil, but the eighteenth century saw a less innocent exchange. The Birrningh n grrns of the ighteenth cenrury nere exchanged for men. and ir u.x c common vying

that the pricc of a Negro wrs one Birmingham glln The African musket was an importrnt Birmingham export, reaching a total of roolooo to rto,ooo annually. With the British governmnt and the Erst lndia Company, Africa rankd as the most important customer of the Birmingham gunmake$.l4l The needs of the plantations too were not to be despised. In the latc seventeenth century the ironmasten, Sitwells, ofDrbyshire were producing among their items sugar stoves rnd rollcrs for crushing cane in Barbados, and Birmingham, too, was intersred in the planrations.r{, Expons of wrought iron and nails

went to the plxntations, though thse exports tended to fluctuate according to the condition of the sugar trade. As one ironmrster said in r7l7: "The bad state of some of our sugar islands

84 cAprrAlrsM

AND sLAVERY

their bodies in."ra3 These "bath pans," made norv of grlvanized .wst tin, are stiil a normal faturc of Indirn life today. The needs of shipbuilding gave a funher stimulus to heavy induscry. The iron chain and anchor foundries, of which there were many in Liverpool, lived ofl' the building of ships. C,opper sheathjng for the vessls gave fise to local industries in the town
and adjacent districts to supply the dmand. Between thirty and forty vessels rvere employed in transporting the copper, smelted in Lancashire and Cheshire, from the works at Hol)'well to the warhouses in Liver?ool.rs

'4'
THE WEST INDIA INTEREST

The ironmaster's interest in the slave trade continued throughout the ccntury. When the question of abolition came before Parliament, th manufacturen of rnd dealen in iron, coppea brass and lead in Liverpool ptitioned against the pro)ect, which would affcct emp]oyment in the town and send fonh thousands as "solitary wanderers into the world, to seek employment in foreign climes."t5o In the sxme year Birminghlm declared that it was depehdenr on th slave trade to a considerable extent for a Jargc part of its various manufacurs. Abolition would ruin the town and impoverish many of its inhabitants.l51 These apprehnsions were exaggerated.

The munitions demand for the commercial wals of the eighteenth century had preparcd the ironmasters for the still grerter demands to come during the Revolutionary and Nrpoleonic lvars. The colonial marketq morover, were ;nadequate to absorb the increased production which resulted from the tchnological innovations. Between rTro and 1735 iron exports almost trebled. In rTro the British West Indies took over one-fifth of the exports, in

"OuR roB^cco coloNrEs," wrote Adarn Smith, "send us home no-such \ralthy p|9nlers a we see lrcquently arrivg from our no such $ealtht phntxs as uequenrry rrflv9 rlom sugar i.l\nds."'The sugar planter ranked among/rhe biggest caphali.tslof rhe mercanrilisr epoch. A very popular play- 'fie wst Indian," was produced in London in r77r. It opens with a EemendouS recption being prepared for a planter coming to England, as if it lvere the Lord Mayor who was expcted. The scrvant philosophized: "He's very dch, and thatt suflicient. They say he hrs lum and sugar enough belonging to him, to make all the water in ihe Thames into punch."'

The West Indian planter was r familiar figure in English

rTlj less than one-sirth. In r7ro, over one-third of the expor* to the plantations wenr to the \ugrr islands. in 1735 over onequaner. The peak rvas rached in r7,9, whcn the West Indies took nerrly on-quaftcr of the total exports, and nearly onehalf of the cxports to all the plantations.l., Expansion at home, contrtction in the \ugar i,lrnd.. ln r78t rhc ironmrs(ers. roo, were beginning to look the othcr way. But Cinderella, decked out temporarily in her fancy clothes, was enioying herself too much at the b l to pav an)' artention to the hands of th clock.

society in the eighteenth century. The exphnation lies in the rbsentee landlordism rhich hx aluars been the cursc of rhe Caribbean rnaliiiiLl one of in major'problems today. One absentee planter once arped that "the climate of our srrgar colonies is so inconvenient for an English consritution, that no man will chuse to liv there, much less will any man chuse to seftle there, without rhe hopes at least of supponing his family in a more hand.ome manner. or more money! 'aving than he can do by any business h can expec. in England, or in our plantations upon the continent of Americr"3 But the Wst Indian climate is not disagreeable, and, his fortune once made, the slave owner returned to Britain. Writing in 1689 the agent for Barbados strted that "by a kind of magnetic force England draws to it all that is good in the plantations. It is the center to which all things tend. Nothing but England can we relish or
85

INDUSTRY AND THE TRIANGULl.R TRADE 99

.5.
BRITISH INDUSTRY

capital respectively, were directly associated with the tdan$rlar trade. Here larg sums were needed for the cofton factories and for the canals which improved the meens of comrnunication bctween the two towns.

AND THE TRIANGULAR TRADE

BRrrarN rvas AccuMULArrNc great wealth from the triangular trade. The increase of consumption goods callcd forth by that

trade inevitably drew in its train the development of the productive po.,ver of the country. This industdal expansion re-

quircd finence. lvhat mxn in the 6lst thre-quarters of the eighteenth century was better able to afford the ready capital than a West Indian sugar planter or r Liverpool shve traderl We have already noticed the radiness .rvith which absentee planters purchased land in England, rvhere they were able to Dse their wealth to finance the grrr developmenrs associared with the Agdculturll Revolution. -we must now trace the invstment of profits from the triangllar trade in Bridsh industry, rvhere they supplied part of the huge outlay for the construction of the vast plants to mer the needs of the new
produdive procss and the new markets.

A. THE INVESTMEN:T OF PROFITS FROM THE

TRIA

\CUI

AR TR ADI

t.

Banking

Many of the eightenth century banks established in Liverpool end Mrnchster, the slaving meropolis and the conoii 98

Typical of the eighteenth century banker is the traisition from tradesman to merchant and then the further progressiofl frorn merohant to banker. Tfre term "merchant," ii thi eightccnth century context, not infrequently involved the $adations of slaver captain, privateer captain, privateer o$ner, beforc settling down on shore to the respectable business of commerce. 'lhe varicd activities of a Liverpool businessman include: lrrewer, liquor merchant, grocer, spirit dealer, bill-broker, bankcr, etc. Writs thc historian: "One wonders what was covered by that 'etc."'l Like the song the sirens sang, that "ctc." is not bcyond all coniecture. It included, ar some time or other, some one or more aspects of the trirngnlar trade. The He1'wood Bank was founded in Liverpool in 1773 and cndured as a private bank until 1881, when ir was purchesed by the Bank of Liverpool. lts founders were successful merchants hter elected to the Chrmber of Comrnerce. "They had their crperience," the historian wntes, "of the AJrican trade," besides privrtecring. Both appe3r in the list of merchants trading to Africa in r75r md their African intercsts survived up to r8o7. Ihe senior parrner of one of the branches of th 6rm was 'fhomas Parke, of the banking firm of William Gregson, Sons, Itarke and Morland, whose grandfather wx a successful captrin in the West Indirn trade. Typical of the commercial interrclrtionships of the period, the drughter of one of the partners o{ the Hey\i'oods lxter maffied Robenson, son of John GIadstone, and their son, Robertson Gladstone, obtrined a partnership in the bank. In 1788 the 6rm set up a branch in Manchestcr, at the suggestion of some of the to*'n's leading merchants. lhc Manchester branch, called the "Manchestq Banl," was well known for many years. Eleven of fourteen Heywood descendants up to r8rt became merchants or bankers.2 The emergcnce of Thomas Leyland on the banking scene $,as dlryd rntil the early yars of the nineteenth century, l)ut hh investments in thc African slave trade dated back to th

r),

IOO C PI'TALISM AND SLAVERY

I.r.r ,t rn(r of rhe eighreenih. Leyland, qirh tus parmers, wrs ,rrc 0i rhc nros acrive slrve rraders in Liverpoot and his profics wcrc i !'nense. In he became snior panner in the bankin6 6r'r of Clarkes'8o, Rosroc. Leytand ;nd Ro,coe, curious and combinationl Srrange un;on of thi succe,siul staver and rhe cunsisrem opponcnr of slaveryt Lcyland srruck off on his owr rn r do7. rn a more con.j\renr prlnership $ irh his slave parmer Bullin\, rnJ (he ride of Leyta;d ,nd Buitins v a born. prouaty and unsmirched f,ir ninery'-Iour yean untit r he amatgam'rrion of the b3nk. in r9or. rrirh rhe Norrh and South iVales Bank Limited.3

INDUSTRY AND THE TRIANGULAR -I-RADD IOI

C,harles Caldvell and Co., was a pairner in Oldharn, Crldwell, ano Lo., vhose uansacrjons were principally h sugar. Isaac Harrman. anorher banter. owncd-Wesi ln'aian pJXnratiors; while Jams Mosq bankrr arrd prominenr crnzcn in the eishr_ cn(h cenrury. had some very targe sugar ptantai;ons in Brirish

The Heyqoods and Lcllands are ontl rhe oursr.,nd;ng exof eighcienth cenrurl Liverpool. Willirm Creg.on. t"nt.,.rio,tru.
amples of rhe gencral rule in rhc bank;ng hisrory
I

radcr. shipowner. pr;vrreer. under$ rirer. and owner ot a ropewalk. Francis Ingram rvas a slave trader, mcmber of the African Company in 1777, while he also had a share in a ropery busi.
ness, and embrrted on a privateering enrerpri\c in pinncr.hip wirh Thomas Leyland and rhe taies. lhc lrtrer'rhernsetvc's had amassed a h;ge fortune in the stave trade, and remained slave_uaders right rp to r8o7. The founder of Hanly's bank

""r

of the "Lirerpool Fircside.' a soi;er1 composcd atmosr entirely captains of vessels, slavers;'and piivatecrs, with a _of sprinl,ling of superior rr,rdesmcn. Rol,crt Frirqerther, like Hanly. was slavi trrdcr, member nt rhe Li!erpoot Fire\ide,
merchrnt and banker.
Jonas Bold combined both slrve and Wcst Indian trades. One of rhc Crmpanv of Alerchanr\ Lrading Africa frorn r777 up 'o to r8o7..Bold wrs , sugrre6nc.. ;nd bccame a panncr iir

was Captain Richard Hanly, slrve tradr, whose sister ivas her_ self married ro a slave rrader. Hanty wa, a promincnt nrember

Ingramk bank. Thomas Fltcher began h;s career as rpprentice to a merchrnt brnker v,ho crrried on an extensive tiade with Jamaica. Rrised ro , parrner(hip. Flcrcher larer becime suc_ ceq\ively Vicc-Chrirman and Ch:irman of the Liverpoot Wesr India Associrtion, and at his dcath his assers includei interes* in mongages on a coffee and sugar planrarion, with the slaves rhereon. in Jrmaica. Charles Caldweil. .f rhe banking 6rm of

Brrcta). Two menrLers of rhis euakcr famih, Davi; ^':I** $.cre engaged in rhe.tave rrade in r716. David l'11 Dcgrn hA crrerr.in Amcrican and Wesr Indian com,nercc and of rhe mo\r influenrirl merchanrs of his dav_ Hi\ ratncr s iousc jn Cherp\ide \as one of rhe 6nesr;n tr,," .nd urs otren vi:ired bv rorahy. Hc *". "i," ..i. rrader hut actuarry ..""a Jg,;". pr"n,,,iorl i" T.j::i^i ".1,-l: J:ma.:.r yler:. y: are rotJ. he freed his stavei. and tived ro find thar 'lhe bhck skin cnclo.ed herrr( full of gmritude rnd minds as capaoie.or rmprovemen, as rhe proude<r 1lhrre...The Bar_ cra.vsmrroed inro rhe banking families of Cumel and Freame, orhcr inrermarriases in orher hmn;hes of ind,,_ i* :::"y lepr rrv euakr \veahh in euakcr hrndr. From the .whrch sprang Barchw\ Brnk who.e expcnsion ana pro!_ ::_.:1"i,." rss rrc beyond the sc.De of rhissrn,-tv. ri<e of bankins in Ch\gow'wrs inrimrrety conneded .The. jl,:"#l* trrde. rhe-6rsr-reglrar hank besnn bu<i_ :"":,:h:,7{o. Kno$n as rhe Ship Brnk, r(ss onc of rh; n.i.;..r 'n panners ttas Andrew Buchrnan. a robacco tord .f ,h;.;,;:
nrme^ rs

vas WiJlhm Miles. Among the memben ot the committee were Arderman^D'ubeny.. Richard Brighr. Richard Vaughan. John uave rnd phrtip prorheroe. Alt sir u cre banlers in Bi.rol. Cave, aflght md Daubenv werc panners in rhc ..New ., Bant es. tabrrshed in r)86. Prorhcroe wr\ n,rrnFr in rhe Bri,,ol ciry Mircs houshr^, rea,irng pannenhip ;n the ori DanKrng hou\e ol Vaughan. Brrker and Companyr rwo of his sons verc mcnl;oned in r7o4. and -\4ites., 'Bani,," ir _a; lopularly c,lled. had a tengrhy and prosperous carecr.r ror London onty onc name need Le mentioned, when rhar

h,: s,id oJ Liverpoor is equauy true of Brisrol, , ^lT1 *. *:" classow. Presidins over rhe rneering of the in_ :.:l_:9'l nuentrat comminee sel up in Br;rot in rrSo ro nppise abotitjon

P::]l;-ylly

I
I02 CAPITALISM AND
SLAVERY

INDUSTRY AND AHE TRIANGULAR TRADE I03

rhe French. 'tven in rhis emergcncy, vrore Boul(on ro him hopefull1, Lovc, Vere and Companr may )erbc \aved, if ye We.r lndian fleet arrives safc fro; y(:Fre;ch ,1..r. . . a" rrl"ny

Another was the same William Macdorvall whose meeting with th sugar hebesses of St. Kitq hd established both rhe fo;unes of his house and those of the ciry. A third wxs Alexmder Houston, one of the greatest Wesi lndtrn merchants of the yho:9 firm, Alexandq Houston and C,ompany, was one "ity-, leading West Indian houses in of th the kingdom. This firm itself only gxew our of rhe retum of the two Scotch ofncrs and their island brides ro (he cirv. For lhree-quancrs of rhe centuly the 6rm carrid on an iirmense rrade. owning mrny ships and vasl sugar plrnratjons. Anr;ciparins rhe aboiirion of rhe slave rade. it speculared on a graird scate in the purchase oI slaves. The bill, however. failed ro pas. The stavel hrd to be fed and clothed, rhejr price fll heivily, disease carried them off.by the hundreds. The firm consequenrly cra:hcd in r7o5. and this was rhe greatest financicl disasrer Gtasgow had evir

of thei! securiries deDend on ir

lhe

"s

"

wno rs a verj am'rbtc mrn, wirh tcn or rwelve thou<and puunds . yar, has the largest esrate in Jamaica; there was alio Mr. Cale and Mr. Beesron Long. qho hrve some very targc sugar plantations rhere. who wi.h ro tte ,ream an wir in lieu-"f

safe. The sugar planters were amonq rhe firsr ro rertize irs imponance. Boukon wrore ro Wat rTSr: .... . Mr. pennanr,

brnk pullcd rhrough.nd rhe precious intcnrion wrs

ii

The success of the Ship Bank stimulated the formation of other banks, The Afins Bank was founded in thc sarne year, vith one of the leading partne$ Andrew Cochrane, another tobecco lord. The Thistle Bank followcd in 176r, Nn ffistocratic bank, whose busines lay largely among thc rich West Indian merchants. One of the chief panners uas John Clas+ ford, who carried on buiiness on , large scate. At one (ime he owned twenty-five ships and rheir cargocs on the sea and his annual tumover was more than half a million srcrling.?

,.

He4ty Induttry

angrxar trade. It was the capital accumulatd from the West Indian trrde ther financed James Watt and the stcam cngine. Boulron and 'Watt received advances from Lowe, Veie, Williarns and the Willirms Deacons Bank. Wat had some Jennings-later anxious moments in r77fl during lhe Amcrican Revolurion

Heav.v indlytry played an imponanr rolc in che progress of . the lndusrrial Revolution and the developmenr of tLe iiangutar trade. Some rf rhe capiral $hich firianeed the growrh"of the mcrrllurgical indusrries vas <uppl;ed direcrty by rhe tri-

when rhe Wesr Indian flcer was rhre.tencd with caprure by

plying seasoned and able Negroc, for qovernmenr conrrrcr\ in rhe Wesr Ind;e\. During rhe years r7o8ir776 he recei\ed ,tmosr 16-.000 under rhis hrrer headjng. tn 176( he set up his iron worl,s ar Merthyr Tydflt. u hich c:rprndid npidty'orv;ng to governmenr conrracrs during rhe Amcricrn war; in r_7J tre sct up another furnace rr Cytarrha. The iron ore for his furnaces was_ exported from Whitehaven, and as early as r74o Bacon took a parr in improring its harbor. lJacon mrde a forrune our of hi. artillery contracrs u irh the snlrsh. governmcnr. Hc rerired in ,7sz hrving acquired a verirable rninerrl kingdom. His ironrvort s ar Cyfairha he teased ro Crav'hay. rcserving for himsetf a ctear rnnuiry nf tro.o<)o. cnd our of Cl fanha Crawlhay hirDself madc a fortune. He sold,,Penydnren ro_ Homfr;1. rhc jnrn who perfecrcd rhe puddlrng pro.e\s: Do$lais wenr ro Lcrvis cnd ihe ptymouttr worlts to Hill. The ordinrnce contract had ,lre"ay Ue'n tr".,s_ fe(ed to Carron, Roebuck's successor. No wondir that it was

. One of the lcading ironmongcr. of the eighcecnrh cenrury. Arrony Bacon. was inrimarety connected wirh rhe niangular trade. His partner was Gilben Fmncklyn, a West ti'dian pirnter. who larer wroce manl lerers ro rhe Lord presidnr oI rhe Cnmmiftee of Privy Council emphrsiTing rhe impoflance ot ralrng over Lhe French (ugxr cotony of Srjnr Domingxe in rhe war wi(h revolurionary Frrnce.:6 B;con, like so;rny orhers, ventured inro rhe Africrn rrude. He began a lucr.rtive commerce in finr vicrualling (roops on rhe corqiand rhcn sup

/
rO+ CAPITALISM AND
SLAVERY

INDUSTRY AND THE TRIANGULAR TRADE IO'

lndirn, father of the famous Cardinal Manning.ls Marryat ..lrrs lvardcd lr5,ooo compensation in r8j7 for t9r slaves in Trini

stated thet Bacon considered hirnself as "moving in a superior

William Beckford became a masrcr ironmongq in r7g.u

Part of the capital supplied for the Thorncliffe ironworks, begun in !792, came from a rezor-meker, Henry Longden, rl/ho received a bequest of some fifteen thousand pounds from a wealthy uncle, e West Indian merchant of Shefield.la In the eighteenth century, when the dave trade was the most veluable tlade and l-l/esr Indian properry among the mosr valuable properry in rhe Brirj\h [mpire. rhe uirneulrr tradc occupied an impomnr position in rhe eyes of the rising insurance companies. In rhe early years, when Lloyd's was a coffee house and nothing more, many advertisemenrs in the London Gazetre atout runaway slaves lis(ed Llovd s as rhe place uhere they
5hould be retumed.'r

rl.d rnd Jrmaics.l6 In 1782 the West Indian sugar interesr rooL the lead in starri'E another insurance company, the Phoeni\, one of the first conpanics to estrblish a branch overseas-in the West Indies.l? lhc Liverpool Underwrited Association was formed rn r8o2. (lllairmxn of thc meting was the promincnt West Indian mer-

chmt' John Gladstone.l3

B. 1HE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITTSH INDUSTRY

To

r783

agent for l,loydt in Antigla in r8ll, rnd the onty known portrait of his fathff was recendy discovered in thc West Iniies. One of the most distin$rished chairmen of Lloyd's in its Iong history was Joseph Marryaq a West Indian planter, who succesfully and brillianrly fought to maintain Lloyd's monopoly of marine in.urance ag,insr r rivrl company ;n rhe Hou+;f Commonr in r8ro, \rhere he was oppo'*ed by anorher Weir

The earliest extant advertisement rcferring to Lloyd's, dated 169r, deals rvith the sele of three ships by auction. The ships wer clard for Barbados and Virginia. Th only project listed at Lloyd's in the bubbles of rTzo concerned trade to Barbary and Africa. Relron. rhe hiq(orian of 6re insurance, sures that insurrnce agiinst 6rs in the lrycst Indis had been done at Lloyd's "from a very early date." lloyd's, iike other insurrnce companies, insured slaves and slave ships, and was vitally interesred in legal decisions as to vhrt conscitutd "natural death" and "perils of the sea." Arnong their subscriptions to public heroes and merchant captains is on of r8o4 to a Livirpool cxptain who, on passage from Africa ro British Guiana, successfully bat ofr a French corvette and srvcd his vrluabte cargo. The third son of thdr first screral', John Bennert, was

Thus it rvas that the Abb Raynal, one of the most progressive spirits of hh day, a man of wide lerrning in close touch lvith rhe French bourgeoisie, was able to see that the labors of the people in the Wesr lndies "may be considered as the principrl cruse of the rapid motion which nolv agitates the universe."1e The tdangular trade made an enormous contribution to Britain's iodustrial development. The profts from this trade fcrtilized the entire pmductive system of the country. Three instrnces rnust sufFce. The slatc industry in Wales, which pro-

vidd material for roofing, was revolutionized by the new mcthods adoptcd on his Grnarvonshire state by Lord Penrhyn,fl who, as we have sen, owned sugar plntations in Jamaica and was chairman of the West India Committee at the cnd of the eighteenth century. The leading figrrre in the first great railway project in England, which linked Liverpool and Manchester, was Joseph Sandars, of whom litcle is kno$r. But his withdrarval in r8r4 from the Liverpool Anti-Slavery Soc;cty is of great importance, as at least shorving r reluctance to prcss the sugar planters.2l Three othr men prorninently identified with the undertaking had close connections with the trixngular tradc--Gcneral Gascoyne of Live$ool, a stdwar champion of the West India interest, John clrdstone and John Moss." The Bristol West India interest also played a prominent prrt in the construction of the Great Western Railway.,s But it must not bc inferred thar the triangllar ftrde wal

CAPIAALIS]\'I
solely xnd entirely rspondble for the economic developrnent. The growth of the intcrnal market in England, the plough-

INDUSTRY AND

fHE TRIANCULAR TRADE I07

ing-in of the profits from industry to generate still funher capital and achieve still greater expansion, played a large part. But this industrial development, stimulrted by mrcrntilism, Irter outgrew mercantilhm and dcstroycd it. In 1783 the shape of things to conre wrs clerrly visible. The steam engine's potentialities wre not an academic question. Sixty-six engines lvere in opemtion, two-thirds of thes in mines and foundries.:a Improvcd methods of coal mining, combined with th influncc of steam, resulted in a great expansion of the iron industry. Producion incrrsd four times between r74o and 1788, th number of fumaccs rose by one-hrlf.'5 The iron bddge xnd the iron railroad hnd appeird; the Carron Works had been foundcd;;rnd Wilkinson nrs already famous as "the fathcr of the iron trade." Cofton, the qucen of thc Industrial Revolution, responded readily to the new invenrions, unhampered as it rves bv the tmditions and guild restrictions lvhich impeded its o[ler riral. vool. Laissez frire becrme r prrcrice in the new industry long before it pcnctratcd the text books as onhodox cconomic thcory. The spinning jenny, the water frame, the mule, revolutionized the industly, vhich, as a result, showcd n continuous up\r'rrd trend. Bet\rccn rToo and r78o irnports of rarv cotton incrersed morc than three times, exports of cotton goods fifteen times.,0 The population of Manchester incrased by nerrly one-half bctween r7t7 and rZU 1,"7 the numtcn cngaged in,he (^rrnn indrrsrrl rlurdrupicd b.tuecn r75o and 1785.,3 Not onlv hcavy indusrry, cotton, too the two industries thrt wr to dominntc the pcriod r78l-r8jowas grthering strengrh for rhc assault on the system of monopoly which had for s., long becn dccured esscntial to thc existencc and prospcrity of both. The entire economy of Engllnd .rras stimulatd by this beneficent breath of incrcased production. The output of the
Str6ordsh;rc potteries fivefold in vnhre beBven r7r5 'ncrersed and r 777.* The tonn:rge of shipping Ieaving English ports more than doubled betrveen rToo and r78r. Engljsh imports increased fourfold betrlen rTrt and 1775, exports fbled be-

twecn rToo and r77r.30 [nglish industry in 1783 was like Gulliver, tied dorvn by the Lilliputian restrictions of mcrcantilism.

Two outstanding 6gues of the eigheenth century saw and, rvhat was more, appreciatd the irprcssihle conflict: Adam Smith from hh professorial chair, Thomas Jefferson on his
plantatign.

Adam Smith denounced the folly and iniustice which had first dircctcd the project of cstablishing colonies in rhe New World. He opposed the whole system of monopoly, the keystone of the colonial rrch, on the ground thir it restricted the productive power of England as well as the colonies. tf British industry had advanced, it had done so not bccause of the monopoly but in spite of it, and the monopoly represented nothing brt the sacrifice of the general good to the interests of a ferv, thc sacrifice of the interest of the home consumer to that of the colonial producer. In the colonies themslvcs the
ban on colonial nanufactures seemed to him

tion of the mosr sacrcd r;ghts of mankind . . . impen;nent badges of slavery imposed upon thm, without any suflicicnt reason, by th groundless jealousy of the merchants and
manufacturcft of the mothcr country." British capital had ben forced from trade lvith ncighboring countries to trade with more disarnt countriesi moncy thrt could have becn uscd to improve the lands, incrcase the manufactures, and extend the

",

manifest viola-

commerce of Grert Britain hd been expcndcd in fostcring a trade with distant areas from rvhich llritain derived nothing but loss (l) and frequent wrls. It \ras a 6t system for a nation whose govcrnmcnt was influcnced by shopkeepers.st The lveobh of N,rtrrr?r was the philosophical rntecedent of the Ame can Revolution. Both were nvin products of the same cause, the brake applied by the mrcxntile system on the development of the productive power of England and her colonies. Adam Smith's rol was to berate intellectually "the rnean and r4alignant expedients"s'of a system which the armies of Geolge Weshington dealt a mortal wound on the bardefields of Anerica.

ii