MMW 13 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Azores, Triangular Trade, French West Indies
19 May 2018
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Outline Lecture Fourteen—Economies of Exploitation: The Atlantic
Slave Trade
Key Focus:
1) What were the economic driving forces behind the slave trade?
2) What were some global repercussions?
I) The Origin of the Atlantic Slave Trade
a) Slavery Prior to 1400
i) Origin of the word “slave”
- Slavic speaking people - eastern european people
- Developed due to people in eastern europe had been enslaved during
the oriental slave trade
ii) Key differences between pre-15th century and post-15th century slavery
(1) Ratio of slaves to free people in pre-15th century societies very low
- Prior to 15th century, ratio was always low
- No society where number of slaves far outnumbers their
masters - usually pretty balanced
- Slaves mostly used as household servants (e.g in Africa before
slave trade with europe)
- Slave status was not passed down through generations
- general trend in Africa
(2) Slave status seldom defined by a person’s ethnicity
- No systematic racialization of slavery - only came with atlantic
slave trade
iii) Advent of the plantation system
- Racialization of slavery - developed in the new world
- Post-1500s slavery trend
- Ethnicity and use of slaves in the plantation system became
synonymous
b) The Sugar Connection
- Origin of plantation system (cane sugar - highest quality of sugar)
- Requires certain climate - can’t grow in Europe
-
European appetite for sugar → created huge demand
i) A cultural consequence of the Crusades
- Crusades brought back sugar to europe
- Introduced/caused the high demand of cane sugar
- However, production of cane sugar was labour intensive
ii) Developed Atlantic “sugar islands”
- Azore islands - first establishment of sugar plantations
- Middle of atlantic, high climate, not inhabited
- Used slaves of the guanche people for labour, then started
using Africans for slavery after
iii) Pedro Alvares Cabral’s landing on the coast of Brazil
- Portuguese pilot - 1500
- Discovered better land for sugar plantations
- How they started to emerge - through discovery of Brazil
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- Brazil easily eclipse all the other atlantic islands as the main
production point of sugar
-
From profiting point of view, plantation was a gold
mine → access to cheap slave labour and produce
expensive commodity in large quantities
iv) Plantation societies also later emerged in the French Caribbean
- France and Britain also colonized caribbean islands due to desire for
sugar production
- Tobacco and indigo also relied on plantation systems
c) The Economics of Plantation Societies
i) “Multinational” enterprises
- Plantation societies always involves many different european entities
- Also required huge capital investment in order to institute plantations
- Precursor to factory system
- Dutch, german, and flemish banking system usually
funded the societies/main investors for those who
wanted to establish plantations
-
Triangular trade → british and french were
transporters (most active in transporting slaves)
(1) Every major European power profited from and was complicit in
the slave trade
-
Triangular trade → it was a dynamic relationship between many
european nations (dutch, german, british, french, etc).
ii) Advent of industrial-style mass production
(1) Followed a capital-intensive vs. labor-intensive logic
- Capital-intensive: viewed slaves as factory machines, not as
human workers
- Like machines, slaves seen as replaceable and
dispensable in this approach
- Labor-intensive: saw slaves more as human workers
(2) More “economical” to replace than to sustain slave labor
- Each male slave had a productive life span on average of 7 years
- Assumption was to get the most out of these slaves to peak 7
years. Therefore, like machines, cheap to replace them after
getting the most out of them
- rather than sustaining labour force
- **essence of capital-intensive approach**
-
High attrition rate → 1:1 ratio: for every one ton of sugar
produced, one slave life lost
(a) This logic particularly pervasive in South America and the
Caribbean
(3) Roots of proto-capitalism in slave-based plantations?
- Birth of capitalism rooted in this capital-intensive logic
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Slave trade: what were the economic driving forces behind the slave trade, what were some global repercussions, the origin of the atlantic slave trade, slavery prior to 1400, origin of the word slave . Slavic speaking people - eastern european people. Developed due to people in eastern europe had been enslaved during the oriental slave trade: key differences between pre-15th century and post-15th century slavery (1) ratio of slaves to free people in pre-15th century societies very low. Prior to 15th century, ratio was always low. No society where number of slaves far outnumbers their masters - usually pretty balanced. Slaves mostly used as household servants (e. g in africa before slave trade with europe) Slave status was not passed down through generations. General trend in africa (2) slave status seldom defined by a person"s ethnicity. No systematic racialization of slavery - only came with atlantic slave trade: advent of the plantation system.
