The 'Triangular Trade' came to be known as ‘triangular’ as it mainly had three primary destinations. These were England, the Americas and Africa. The voyages or trade routes were from England to Africa, from Africa to the Americas and lastly from the Americas back to the English. From the different destinations, different goods plied. Sugar, rice, cotton, tobacco and other natural resources came from Africa. These were transported either to the Americas and England and became refined as finished/manufactured goods that included; tobacco, processed rice, beads and clothes (Thomas, 2012). However, a key commodity within this trade route was the slaves from the African continent. The slaves were either sold as prisoners of war or taken from the different colonies that were annexed by the English and other European nations.
The first part of the three destination journey, raw materials and slaves were taken from Africa to the Americas and England. These were either processed in factories or if plants, farmed in plantations, by use of slave labor. The finished goods would then be transported to Africa, to again be traded for slaves and raw materials. It is important to know that the triangular trade was not an official or fixed system of trade, but rather a designation that was given to this triangular route. Additionally, other triangle-shaped trade routes existed at that time. However, historically speaking, when the term triangular trade pops up, it is predominantly referring to the trade routes between the three destinations.
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Map showing the three destinations/routes)
In the 18th century, approximately 6 million Africans were taken to England and the Americas as slaves. The slave trade is known to have begun with when Spanish and Portuguese traders started taking African slaves to American colonies they had occupied, in the period around the 15th century. The British became involved around the 16th century. Their involvement in the trade was bolstered by the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) that gave them the authority to sell slaves to the Spanish Empire (Drehle, 2009).
The main means of transport was through British ships. In that century, the world’s economy was rapidly growing. There was increased production and consumption of goods in that period than in all the other period merged (Thomas, 2012). To facilitate this supply and demand, slaves were used as the ‘human lubricant’ to the whole process. Being the key commodity in the triangular trade, slaves were just not a commodity but a factor of production as well. Thus, the more slaves a manufacturer could get to work for them, the cheaper their goods would be and the more rapid their production. Slaves were, after their ‘useful life’ sold off to personal owners, away from plantations and manufacturing plants.
On the West African coast, that formed the second destination of the triangle, the goods from the Americas and Europe were exchanged for enslaved Africans. A third of all slaves transported I that period of time were transported by the British. The ships transported enslaved Africans to the Americas that was the third point of the triangle. On arrival to the Americas, the slaves were then either sold or exchanged for tobacco, rice, sugar and guns. These were then transported to Europe.
To a large extent, the slaving ships plying the triangular route were not involved in the final leg of the triangular trade. Traders found it more lucrative to trade directly with the Americas, using ships more suitable to transporting goods. From the three routes however, different trading routes came about, only that they were not as frequently used as the three destinations. The additional routes were to the Caribbean, then between Brazil and Africa. Additionally, a route between Europe and Asia developed since the sixteenth century (Drehle, 2009) . The main goods in this route were in fine Indian textiles, which were produced precisely for African and slave trade markets. They came to be known as Guinea Clothes. The trading of slaves is said by historians to have been the antecedent to plantation farming, in all the destinations that slaves were sold.
Tropical goods
The goods from the tropical countries were especially favored by the Europeans. By mid 1770s the English alone were averaging a sugar consumption of six kilos per head annually. This heavy sugar consumption meant that the African slaves had to work extra hard in the American and European plantations, sometimes to the point of death. The trade developed from the production and supply of sugar and other commodities was huge. Current estimates of the trade stand at £2.75m (£275m in current prices), in terms of export £3.15m (£315m) goods in terms of import.
The rise of Piracy
The rise of piracy was witnessed after turbulent events such as wars, however, piracy was always connected to shipping routes and large government trade fleets. In the age of the triangular trade, there were mainly Asian and Atlantic pirates. Asian pirates mainly attacked ships plying the China-Asia route whilst the Atlantic pirates attacked ships plying the “Triangular Trade” routes. The triangular trade route was both a factor of availability of goods and the need for ships/shipping companies to maximize their profits by sailing to three continents.
This kind of trade evolved not only out of needs and offerings of specific markets, providing manufactured goods to undeveloped destinations and shipping raw materials back from newly conquered colonies back to Europe, but also because of the trade winds that were present on Atlantic (Thomas, 2012). The winds promoted repeated use of specific naval routes that were used during entire age of Sail.
References
Hugh Thomas (2012), The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440-1870, New York, Simon and Schuster Paperbacks.
David von Drehle (2009), Triangle: The Fire That Changed America, U.S.A, First Groove Press.
