These were exchanged at a profit on the coast of Africa for Negroes, who were traded on the plantations, at another profit, in exchange for a cargo of colonial produce to be taken back to the home country. As the volume of trade increased, the triangular trade was supplemented, but never supplanted, by a direct trade between home country and the West Indies, exchanging home manufactures directly for colonial produce. Most significant, however, is the fact that the trade in slaves was the key aspect of the triangular trade in which the increasing demand for goods led to the expansion and further development of capitalist industry in Europe. It is important to understand the historical though costly contribution of
The Sugar Trade was driven by many factors. Some of which are capital, slavery and complementing industries. Consumer demand and return on investment were all very important aspects to the making of the historic events in which were the sugar trade.Money was, and still is, very important. Sugar was even called white gold by British colonists during the slave trade. In Bittersweet: The Story of Sugar, Peter Macinnis states that the first curse of sugar is capital intensive, meaning a lot of money.
However, England had to invest a lot of money in the improvement and modernization of India. The British “develop[ed] the territory by building roads, canals, railways”(Document 1) and “establish[ed] schools and newspapers”(Document 1) which isn’t cheap—especially if they have two countries to take care of. In addition, India was even more affected by imperialism. Changes in the Indian society due to English imperialism were necessary and significant, but not worth getting governmental power and independence stripped away from them. The British gave the Indians “the benefit of…blessings of civilization which they did not have the means of creating themselves”.
It could be argued that there are multiple factors that could be argued to be the primary cause of the American Revolution. These factors include social, economic, and political causes, all of which branch out into far more intricate categories. However, a major precursor of the revolution was the tyrannical control with which Britain treated the Americans as an inferior people, mainly through absurd taxes. The colonists began to see the economic restraints that Britain’s laws placed on their lives. Americans grew to believe that the many taxes were levied for the enhancement of British capital at the expense of American welfare.
During 1492 to 1750 the Atlantic slave trade affected Europe and Africa through both their economy and through social aspects. Socially, Europe and Africa were connected globally but while Europe benefited mainly from a positive standpoint, Africa was confronted with social problems such as civil wars. Economically they both prospered from the slave trade but the Europeans experienced it much more so as it helped fuel the growth of capitalism while Africa experienced economic underdevelopment. The Atlantic slave trade created some very notable social effects on both Africa and Europe. One effect was they both shared was being connected globally to other places around the world and interacting with them.
This was used to make rum. From the West Indies merchants carried the rum, along with guns, gunpowder, and tools to West Africa. they traded their items for slaves, they carried the slaves to the West Indies where they were sold. Traders would take the profits and buy more molasses. The trip was horrible.
Slavery was such a vital part in the cultivation of cash crops such as sugarcane that it was introduced to North America with its colonization. The availability of land combined with the growing demand of sugarcane in Europe quickly created an insatiable demand for African slaves, whom, by happenstance, tended to be suited well for work in the warm and tropical environments of the Americas. These Africans at first became indentured servants; nevertheless, the growing arrogance of the white man in his spiritual superiority and the need for even more labor led to the swift decline of the indentured servant. When other alternatives to slavery such as cheap white labor and convict laborers failed to deliver the desired results, the prevalent abstraction of a racially-based slave system finally emerged in the 1680’s. Furthermore, slave uprisings would also play a role in the shaping of the structure of slavery.
The government protected its merchants—and kept others out—by trade barriers, regulations, and subsidies to domestic industries in order to maximize exports from and minimize imports to the realm. The government had to fight smuggling—which became a favorite American technique in the 18th century to circumvent the restrictions on trading with the French, Spanish or Dutch. The goal of mercantilism was to run trade surpluses, so that gold and silver would pour into London. The government took its share through duties and taxes, with the remainder going to merchants in Britain. The government spent much of its
“Jamaica became popular in producing tobacco, cocoa and sugar for the British” (Mason). Jamaica became the most valuable Caribbean colony because of the crops it was able to produce. “The English developed a flourishing plantation economy with slave labor brought from West Africa, but the abolition of the slave trade in 1834, the Civil War in the United States and the removal of British tariff protection for Jamaican products destroyed the economy and led to a black uprising in Morant Bay in 1865” (Kurian). The economy was gradually rebuilt when the British Parliament established a Crown colony government. “The British then began new programs; banana cultivation, internal transportation and educational and public health facilities” (Kurian).
The main reason the British practiced imperialism in Africa was to bring forth Christianity and many European civilizations to African countries. Britain’s economy fed on trade, and they did not want the West Coast of Africa for its palm oil. They believed it was too unstable for good commerce without their control. Their main objective was to protect their high paying countries; India and the Caribbean. Since the slave trade in the 1830’s, Africa didn’t impress the British.