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1698
- The revocation of the Royal African Company's (RAC) African trade monopoly in 1698 inaugurated an era of free trade by Europeans on the Atlantic African coast, ultimately transforming the slave trade as a whole.
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The Royal African Company was able to swiftly respond to the exacerbated principal-agent problem it faced with the end of its monopoly because the very infrastructure of the transatlantic slave trade gave the company a real-time monitoring mechanism: slave-ship captains.
Abstract. The revocation of the Royal African Company's monopoly in 1698 inaugurated a transformation of the transatlantic slave trade. While the RAC’s exit from the slave trade has received scholarly attention, little is known about the company’s response to the loss of its trading privileges.
Essentially what they're saying is something interesting -- that "fringe competitiors" actually had significant advantages over the Royal African Company; it may have had a _legal_ monopoly, but it did not have a competitive monopoly.
Not only did the end of the company's monopoly increase competition, but the unprecedented numbers of private traders who entered the trade exacerbated the company's principal-agent problems on the West African coast.
- Archival Sources
- Other Primary Sources
- Secondary Sources
The National Archives, Kew Gardens (“TNA”)Google ScholarT 70/23Google ScholarT 70/50Google ScholarT 70/100Google ScholarCharles II. “By the King, A Proclamation.” London: Printed by the Assigns of John Bill and Christopher Barker, Printers to the King, 1674.Google ScholarDonnan, Elizabeth, ed. Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade to America, Volume I, 1441–1700. Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1930.Google ScholarHakluyt, Richard, ed. The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation, Vol. XI (Edinburgh: E. & G. Goldsmid, 1884–1890), https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h/haklu...Law, Robin, ed. The English in West Africa, 1681–1683: The Local Correspondence of the Royal African Company of England, 1681–1699, Part 1. Oxford: Published for the British Academy by Oxford Unive...Alpern, Stanley B. “What Africans Got for Their Slaves: A Master List of European Trade Goods.” History in Africa 22 (1995), 5–43.CrossRef Google ScholarApter, Andrew. “History in the Dungeon: Atlantic Slavery and the Spirit of Capitalism in Cape Coast Castle, Ghana.” American Historical Review 122, No. 1 (February 2017), 23–54.CrossRef Google ScholarBean, Richard Nelson. “A Note on the Relative Importance of Slaves and Gold in West African Exports.” Journal of African History 15, No. 3 (1974), 351–356.CrossRef Google ScholarBeckles, Hilary McD. and Andrew Downes. “The Economics of Transition to the Black Labor System in Barbados, 1630–1680.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 18, No. 2 (Autumn 1987), 225–247.CrossRe...- Matthew David Mitchell
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- 2020
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The loss of the Royal African Company's slave trade monopoly, increased competition, the overthrow of King James II, and issues of mismanagement of the company, likely led Champion Ashby the owner of this share certificate to transfer his shares to Thomas Louws in 1691.
