Slave-based coffee in the eighteenth century and the role of the Dutch in global commodity chains

Bibliographic Data

ID9332201
AuthorsTamira Combrink (Russian State Agrarian Correspondence University, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume42
Issue1
Pages15-42
Publication date2021-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSlavery and Abolition (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0144-039X • E-ISSN: 1743-9523
PublisherFrank Cass & Co (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1080/0144039x.2020.1860465
OpenAlexW3135283620
LanguageEN
Citations received7

This article discusses the development of eighteenth century commodity chain of coffee which was largely based on slavery. It highlights the role of the Dutch in this chain and in the intra-European trade. This study shows how the market for coffee was being expanded over the course of less than a century. It shows how consumption reached a mass scale and spread to inland regions on the European continent, notably to German regions along the Rhine river. The article aims to emphasise how this dynamic of market expansion was linked to the expansion of slavery in Dutch Guiana and the French West Indies, especially the rapid growth of Saint Domingue. Finally, this article highlights the importance of this coffee expansion to the Dutch economy. Based on collected data from numerous sources, this article calculates that the share of coffee in Dutch trade value grew from 1% to 9.5% over the course of the eighteenth century and was pivotal to the changing orientation of Dutch foreign trade during this period

Archaeology · Art · Commodity · Commodity chain · Consumption (sociology · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Geography · German · International trade · Market economy · Period (music · Production (economics · Social science · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Financial Crisis of the 21st Century · Historical Economic and Social Studies

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