Triangular trade

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A "triangular trade" is any three-way exchange, but the term is often used to refer to one particular instance: the 18th century trade between Europe, the west coast of Africa, and the Caribbean.

Europe-West Africa-Caribbean

The three way trade in the North Atlantic

This triangle trade lasted from around 1700 to 1808, when the importation of slaves was banned by Great Britain and the United States.

Ships from Europe would ply the African coast purchasing slaves and selling them in the Caribbean (typically for on-sale to the British North America, usually the Southern colonies) before sailing back to Europe with agricultural products, such as sugar and cocoa. This makes a triangle on a map, hence the term "triangular trade." The route was also designed to take full advantage of prevailing winds and currents. For example, the trip from the West Indies or the southern colonies to Europe would be assisted by the Gulf Stream. The outward bound trip from Europe to Africa would not be impeded by the same current.

The triangular trade involved three principal commodities: sugar, rum, and slaves. European distillers made rum from Caribbean sugar. European slave ships took vats of the rum to Africa and bought African slaves from their African owners/dealers with the rum. (Guns were also sold to the slavers, which facilitated them in obtaining more slaves.) The bulk of the human cargo was sold in the Caribbean in trade for cane sugar. The sugar was then taken back to Europe, and the cycle continued. At each stop along the way, an excellent profit was made.

Surplus slaves not sold in the Caribbean or Latin America were brought on European ships in the triangular trade to the American South and sold to the large plantations. Cotton in the American South was sold primarily to English textile mills which became the basis for industrialization in England and the subsequent British Empire.

Great Britain-British North America-Caribbean

The term "Triangle Trade" is also used to refer to a trade pattern which evolved after the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain, the colonies of British North America (BNA), and British colonies in the Caribbean. This typically involved exporting raw resources such as fish, lumber, and fur from BNA colonies, sugar and molasses from the Caribbean, and various commodities from Great Britain.

The trade pattern existed through the 19th century and in some format in the 20th century until it was disrupted by World War II. Trade expanded in the post-war period to include the United States and other Western Hemisphere nations.

Triangular trade

Europe-West Africa-Caribbean

Great Britain-British North America-Caribbean

See also