The Nature and Profitability of the Liverpool Slave Trade
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3446194 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Francis E Hyde (University of Liverpool), Bradbury B Parkinson (University of Liverpool), Sheila Marriner (University of Liverpool) |
| Year | 1953 |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 368-377 |
| Publication date | 1953-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Economic History Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-0117 • E-ISSN: 1468-0289 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1468-0289.1953.tb01476.x |
| OpenAlex | W1990614035 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 16 |
T HE slave trade provides valuable material for the investigations of the economic historian and, whether its profitability can be determined or not, a study of the surviving records opens up many new lines of approach to the complex interaction of financial forces governing the pattern of Britain's trade and economic development in the eighteenth century. The importance of the many aspects of the slave trade in the economic growth of a flourishing commercial centre such as Liverpool has tended to be misrepresented; the nature of the trade has been misunderstood and its profitability frequently exaggerated. Yet no one who wishes to study the economic history of Liverpool from the point of view of the growth of its industrial, banking, insurance and shipping connexions can ignore the direct influence of the slave trade in the originating and fostering of many of its economic institutions. It is the purpose of this paper to put forward, from an analysis of recently acquired manuscript sources,2 some new considerations respecting the nature and profitability of the Liverpool slave trade in relation to the commercial prosperity of the port. The profitability of the Liverpool slave trade cannot be considered without a survey of its structure. The estimates of individual profits submitted by a representative of Liverpool merchants before the regulation of the trade in I 7883 and those of aggregate profitability made by nineteenth-century historians were based on an over-simplified view of the trade.4 Later writers have not generally been in a position to correct the unrealistic conceptions of earlier writers. An analysis of actual accounts has shown that estimates of profit based on simple exchanges of cargo for negroes and negroes for cash, are in fact misleading, even when receipts from sales of negroes have been adjusted for expenses which some nineteenth-century historians overlooked.5 The complexities arising from the diversity of the trade are ignored and accordingly the
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| Unique citing works | 10 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.25 |
| Citation span | 1962 - 2026 (65) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |