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The slave trade

and the Atlantic economies 1451-1870

79

withdrawal of production factors from the exploitation of the American
resources. Since they saw this as conflicting directly with what they thought to
be their own true interests^66 they did all they could to discourage such devel-
opment. Thus following the recommendation in 1708 to the Royal African
Company by the company's governor in Africa to encourage the cultivation
of sugar cane, tobacco, cotton and indigo in Africa, a bill was introduced into
the British Parliament to prohibit the cultivation of those crops on the Gold
Coast.^67
Again, in the 1750s, when the officials of the Company of Merchants
Trading to Africa tried to encourage the cultivation of some of the American
crops in Africa, the British Board of Trade quickly summoned the members
of the company's ruling committee and told them,

That the introducing of culture and Industry amongst the Negroes was contrary to
the known established policy of this trade. That there was no saying where this might
stop and that it might extend to tobacco, sugar & every other commodity which we
now take from our colonies, and thereby the Africans who now support themselves
by war would become planters & their slaves be employed in the culture of these
articles in Africa which they are now employed in in America. That our possessions in
America were firmly secured to us, whereas those in Africa were more open to the
invasions of an enemy, and besides that in Africa we were only tenants in the soil
which we held at the good will of the natives.^68

The members of the company's committee were therefore ordered to ask their
officials on the coast to put an end to this type of activity. Thus, in order to
ensure that Africa provided a regular supply of slaves required for the exploi-
tation of American resources, the British Government through the Board of
Trade had to discourage the development of African economies. In a letter
to the British Treasury in April 1812, about five years after the slave trade had
been abolished in Great Britain, the Committee of the Company of Merchants
Trading to Africa summed up the whole matter thus :

It is a lamentable but certain fact, that Africa has hitherto been sacrificed to our West

India colonies. Her commerce has been confined to a trade which seemed to preclude

all advancement in civilization. Her cultivators have been sold to labour on lands not

their own, while all endeavours to promote cultivation and improvement in agriculture

have been discouraged by the Government of this country, lest her products should

interfere with those of our more favoured colonies.^69

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is clear that the phenomenal expansion of world trade between

1451 and 1870, depended largely on the employment of African slaves in the