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Content: In the early 1600s, the Portuguese dominated this trade, but then other competitors such as the Dutch and the British took over. These were big ventures with multiple investors. In the British case, it was the Royal African Company which had received a royal charter for this trade, and the slaves they transported were branded with the letters ‘R.A.C.’. From 1640 onward, the British carried some 40 percent of the total slaves. The French were next, with some 20 percent. At the peak, British ships were carrying 40,000 slaves every year. Learn more about the millions of Africans who were torn from their homes to be slaves. The Slave Trade and Business
European ports grew rich on slavery. A vast economy was built up around the slave trade, including those who made the goods which were traded for human beings, those who built and outfitted the slave ships, and those who resold the colonial commodities that came back from the Americas. This vast pattern of shipping came to be called the triangle, or triangular trade.