Title: What was the Triangular Trade? [Video]
Headings: What was the Triangular Trade?
What was the Triangular Trade?
Triangular Trades

Content: As a result, slavery in the Triangular Trade became big business. The merchants participating in it could thereby tap into the enormous gold and silver reserves of the Spanish Empire, which were often used as the currency for buying slaves – and which were originally extracted by slaves from large-scale mines in the Americas. Slaves were also sold to plantation owners in the Portuguese, English, French, and Dutch colonies in the Americas – by the 18th century in enormous numbers. When fully operational, the Triangular Trade involved English merchants trading goods including copper and fur on the African continent in return for African slaves, who were then transported across the Atlantic in the so-called “Middle Passage” to be sold for gold and silver, which the merchants then used to buy various slave-extracted raw materials from plantation owners, including molasses, tobacco, and cotton. These raw materials were then shipped to Europe, sold for a profit, and processed into manufactured goods in European cities, including rum and textiles, which would then be exchanged on the African continent by European merchants with African merchants for captured African slaves, beginning the triangle over again. In the case of molasses, it could alternately be shipped north to English colonies in North America, where it was turned into rum, which would then be shipped at a profit back to England, completing the triangle. But the trade could take different arrangements, expanding the means by which merchants could turn profits: sometimes New-England merchants exported rum made in their colonies directly to the African continent, launching the triangle in that way. Or the European-manufactured goods derived from American raw materials could be sold for money in Europe that was partly used to buy guns, soap, and glass, which could then be exchanged for slaves in Africa. The Triangular Trade created a frenzy for profits among merchants, officials, and plantation owners, which spurred an explosion of slavery, horrible working conditions for slaves, and a rise in their purchase price as demand for slaves increased.