The Royal African Company of England's West African Correspondence, 1681-1699
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11869258 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robin Law (0000-0001-7199-3757, University of Stirling, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1993 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Pages | 173-184 |
| Publication date | 1993-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History in Africa (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0361-5413 • E-ISSN: 1558-2744 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3171971 |
| OpenAlex | W2764536881 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 15 |
This paper draws attention to an ambitious project in the publication of source material for the precolonial history of West Africa, which has recently been approved for inclusion in the Fontes Historiae Africanae series of the British Academy. In addition to self-promotion, however, I wish also to take the opportunity to air some of the problems of editorial strategy and choice which arise with regard to the editing and presentation of this material, in the hope of provoking some helpful feedback on these issues. The material to be published consists of correspondence of the Royal African Company of England relating to the West African coast in the late seventeenth century. The history of the Royal African Company (hereafter RAC) is in general terms well known, especially through the pioneering (and still not superseded) study by K.G. Davies (1957). The Company was chartered in 1672 with a legal monopoly of English trade with Africa. Its headquarters in West Africa was at Cape Coast (or, in the original form of the name, Cabo Corso) Castle on the Gold Coast, and it maintained forts or factories not only on the Gold Coast itself, but also at the Gambia, in Sierra Leone, and at Offra and Whydah on the Slave Coast. It lost its monopoly of the African trade in 1698, and thereafter went into decline, effectively ceasing to operate as a trading concern in the 1720s, although it continued to manage the English possessions on the coast of West Africa until it was replaced by a regulated company (i.e., one open to all traders), the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa, in 1750
Ancient history · Archaeology · Cape · Economic history · Ethnology · Geography · Gold coast · History of Africa · Monopoly · Political science · Politics · Promotion (chess · Sierra leone · West coast · African history and culture studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law · Oceanography
Barbot on Guinea
Settlement, trade and polities in the seventeenth century Gold Coast
Royal African Company
Revolution
Correspondence of the Royal African Company's Chief Merchants at Cabo Corso Castle with William's Fort, Whydah, and the Little Popo Factory, 1727-1728. An Annotated Transcription of Ms. Francklin 1055/1 in the Bedfordshire County Record Office
Further Correspondence of the Royal African Company of England Relating to the "Slave Coast," 1681-1699 (Selected Documents from the Ms. Rawlinson C745-747 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford)
Correspondence from the Royal African Company's Factories at Offra and Whydah on the Slave Coast of West Africa in the Public Record Office, London, 1678-1693
Bristol West India Merchants in the Eighteenth Century
The Records of the English African Companies
John Kabes of Komenda
The Slave Coast of West Africa, 1550–1750
The Forgotten Trade
A Guide to Manuscripts and Documents in the British Isles Relating to Africa
Two Sources for the History of the Guinea Coast, 1680-1722
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,13 |
| Citation span | 2018 - 2018 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |