The Slave Trade and the Industrial Revolution

Writers: Julia Bard and David Rosenberg

Introduction | Triangular trade | Did slavery finance British industry? | Booming cities and new institutions | Abolition – moral conviction or economic self-interest? | Conclusion | Find out more

Triangular trade

The capture and transport of slaves to Caribbean and American plantations was part of a continuous triangle of production, transportation, buying and selling. Ships left London, Liverpool and Bristol for Africa filled with goods manufactured in Britain, including textiles, weapons, cutlery, manillas (bronze rings used as currency), gunpowder, beads, tobacco, spirits and beer.

On the African coast, these commodities were exchanged for slaves, who were crammed on to the ships and transported across the Atlantic. This was known as the Middle Passage, a journey which became notorious for conditions of terrible overcrowding, disease and brutality in which many slaves died, killed themselves or were thrown overboard if they were too ill to be sold on landing.

When they reached the Caribbean or South America, then later North America, the slaves were bartered for sugar, spices, molasses, rum, cotton, coffee and tobacco, which were then shipped back to Britain and sold.

The ships never had to travel empty, and the merchants, traders and ship-owners made large profits at all three points of the triangle.

During the 18th century, as the slave trade grew, Britain's economy changed profoundly. This was a time of invention and innovation, when huge numbers of people moved from the countryside into the towns. James Watt's steam engine was used to power trains and other new machines, making it possible to mass-produce goods and transport them cheaply. This period became known as the Industrial Revolution.

Did slavery finance British industry? >