2.4: Transatlantic Trade
2.4: Explain causes and effects of transatlantic trade over time
In the last set of notes, we talked about the different regions of the British colonies in North America and now, we’re going to talk about the connection between these colonies and mainland Europe and more specifically, the Transatlantic Trade.
In the Middle Passage, the part of the journey between Africa and the Americas, slaves were tightly packed into the hulls of ships in harsh conditions. This led to many suffocating, starving, or dying of disease due to a lack of room to move around. The image to the left actually shows a reform by the British Parliament on how slaves were packed into ships called the Slave Trade Act of 1788, meaning that this was actually the “improved” conditions for slaves being transported across the passage and before this, slaves were packed into even more suffocating and terrible conditions.
Mercantilism
What was the driving force behind the Triangular Trade? The prevailing economic system of the time was mercantilism. Mercantilists believed that the world’s wealth was fixed and measured in gold and silver. In mercantilism, the goal was to increase the amount of gold and silver one country had by exporting as much goods as possible and importing as little as possible. Additionally, mercantilism encouraged the creation of colonies as they provided mercantilist states with access to raw materials not available in their own country and created new markets for their goods, further increasing their wealth. The Triangular Trade was developed to fuel this exporting and importing, and to fuel the use of colonies.
Mercantilism had both advantages and disadvantages. Because colonies that produced shipping parts and tobacco had a permanent customer in Britain, mercantilism allowed colonies to prosper without fear. But it also prevented the colonies from having the freedom to produce what they want and sell it to other countries. The South produced the products that Britain needed such as rice and cotton and thrived, which left the other colonies jealous, but the Southerners also despised Britain because of how tightly they controlled prices and what products they could produce or purchase.
Navigation Acts and Salutary Neglect
During this period, the British government passed a series of laws called the Navigation Acts to try to unite the economies of their empires and colonies together. These acts banned colonial trade with other countries that were not the British, required merchants to trade with English colonies only in English ships, and required certain valuable trade items pass through exclusively British ports to be taxed. But this wasn’t always strictly enforced and led to smuggling by colonists. This led to the idea of “salutary neglect”, that because Britain was so far away from the Americas, the colonies were ignored and could do whatever they wanted and govern themselves. This led to a desire for self-rule and independence among the colonists.
As a result of the colonies’ involvement in the Transatlantic Trade, a massive amount of wealth was generated for the elites such as merchants, plantation owners, and investors. Additionally, it caused the seaports and coastal cities of the colonies to grow and transform into thriving urban centers. This led to the Consumer Revolution in North America, in which rich families in the Americas were now rich enough that they could buy things they didn’t need, but just wanted. Now, your social status in the colonies was no longer based on your family or ancestry, but was based on your wealth. This meant merchants and plantation owners had a growing influence on life and society in the colonies.
In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, trade started to become global and a transatlantic (across the Atlantic) economy was developed. This was due to the development of the Triangular Trade, a three-part journey across the Atlantic.
In the Triangular trade, the following would be traded in a cycle:
Europe to Africa: Manufactured goods for slaves
Africa to Americas: Slaves for raw materials and goods (sugarcane and tobacco)
Americas to Europe: Raw materials for manufactured goods