The Atlantic slave trade was a key driving force to the industrial revolution in Britain
Britain experienced a huge industrial development from 1750 onwards. This development led to Britain being one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The changes and development happened at the same period of time that the slave trade was at its peak and Britain was one of the countries most heavily involved. Britain also played the biggest role in the trade out of any other European country. Is this merely coincidence or is there a connection between these two? Was the slave trade causing Britain's growth in economy and industrial development? Seeing as the ports, such as the ports in Bristol and Liverpool became wealthy, more jobs were created,
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Liverpool soon became the largest slave trading port in the Atlantic slave trade system. From this, Liverpool gained a lot of money from taxes on imports and exports which was hugely beneficial to the economy. The government gained about 5% of their income from the taxes paid on these ports which meant that the slave trade was accumulating significant amounts if money. Many jobs were also created by the trade as dockworkers, sailmakers, sailors and ship reporters were needed. Because of the job increase, the economy grew because of taxes and there were fewer unemployed people.
From all the money that was being accumulated from the slave trade, Britain was able to finance a lot of new technology, such as the steam engine. This proves that the slave trade was highly involved in the industrial revolution. Huge profits were being made by investors, merchants and plantation owners and they were investing these profits into banking, insurance and the development of industries which allowed Britain to develop and advance in technology.
New machines and techniques also came with the revolution and it also had a revolutionary effect on farming and manufacturing goods. New factories were developed and the manufacture of cotton became very important and a lot of the cotton being supplied by Britain was produced by slave labour.
The invention of
To start off, England had all the natural resources needed to industrialize. England had a natural supply of wool, cotton, coal, iron, lead, and tin (doc 1). These are all resources that are needed and helpful when industrializing. Wool and cotton are especially good for the textile industry, whereas iron was great for making tools and machinery. Along with these resources, England’s location enabled trading due to it’s many waterways. You can not be more than 70 miles from the sea in England (doc 4). Even the animals in the country were an advantage. For example, the sheep in England gave off the best wool (doc 4). Having natural resources helped England industrialize because it saved the country from having to trade, and/or travel to other countries in order to get what they needed. So many of the natural resources needed to industrialize were found in England. England had everything from coal to power
Great Britain was the first country to really experience industrialization. A combination of the small country, agricultural improvements, large population growth, increases in national wealth, and access to cheap materials and mineral resources allowed the Industrial Revolution to grow in Britain. Because Britain was such a small area of land, the transport of goods and materials was cheap through roads, rivers, and canals. Agricultural improvements resulted in an increase in the production of food which allowed people more disposable income in which they could purchase manufactured goods. Large population growth supplied abundances of laborers who could be employed in factories. Access to cheap materials from Asia and the Americas and mineral resources increased national wealth which allowed industrialization to continue.
During the industrial revolution was also a time when imperialism was at its height. Because of all the inventions that were created during the industrial revolution, countries all over the world decided that they not only just needed money to keep their empire at large, they decided that they need more land. And so the countries and empires in Europe set out to conquer the country that was nearest to them, Africa. Not only did Africa had a large amount of people to sell for slaves, it had most of the materials and ingredients Europe needed to invent more inventions. And for this reason Europe was at competition with each other to gain more land and materials for their empire.
British cotton textile industry grew into the worlds most productive; its railway network became the nation’s principal means of inland transportation and communication; and a new fleet of steam-powered ships enabled Britain to project its new productivity and power around the globe.
During this Revolution, it should be noted that most of the wealth and power available went into the hands of state elites who utilized these two factors for innovation involving production. In addition to this important point, the owners had to resort to slave labor in order to produce goods and technologies and free trade was introduced
Slave trading was a business and “over the four centuries of Atlantic slavery, millions of Africans and their descendants were turned into profits.” (Johnson) The Atlantic trade was highly depended on by slave owners as the life expectancy of a slave working in the sugar cane plantations was about seven years in the Caribbean. Due to the use of slave labor by the 18th century surplus capital was being invested in European industry.
The two majors drivers that led to the transatlantic slave trade was the European desire for the agricultural products of the Americas and the need for laborers to work the land in the Americas. All participants, besides for the slaves, benefited from the trading.
England was fortunate to be comprised of the perfect natural resources to jumpstart the Industrial Revolution. In Landmarks in English Industrial History, George Warner says “England is rich in these advantages, that she has coal and iron… that her harbors are plentiful… and that no part of the country is farther than seventy miles from the sea” (Document 4). England holds coal, iron, lead, tin, and wool, that were needed for industrialization. The country as an island, provides it’s people with many harbors to help trade overseas. England having helpful resources, assisted in starting the first Industrial Revolution.
Slavery played a crucial role in financing the Industrial Revolution in Britain. The plantation owners and the merchants linked with the slave trade and slavery and used it to amass vast fortunes that later grew to reach capitalism globally. In 1944, Eric Williams came up with great ideas on capitalism and slavery. According to Eric Williams, the decline of the British West Indies occasioned the
Without slavery, globalization wouldn't have such a start within the new world. As these people who were enslaved were the ones creating the products that were to be traded for other items. The cheap labour the colonies have created from these
The slave trade was very important to the British economy. Without the slave trade, the triangular trade would not have taken place. This is because there would have been no reason to trade slaves from Africa for goods in the West Indies and the USA. Because there were so many slaves being traded, there was plenty of sugar being exported from the sugar plantations to Britain (3,750 tons in 1951 to 9,525 tons in 1669) due to the increase in labour. This trade of sugar had a big impact on the British economy. Because of the large quantities of sugar being produced by African slaves, sugar was able to become a staple food in Britain. “The poorest English farm labourer’s wife took sugar in her tea” which suggests that even the poorest of
The high production lowered the cost of the food and raised the standard of life. On the other hand, small farmer and peasant class was unemployed as they lost their land to rich landholders. There was increase in the labour force. It seems that socially and economically England possessed everything needed to fuel the industrial revolution.
Slavery went through many changes during the course of the Industrial Revolution. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, slavery on plantations that had developed in the Renaissance continued to grow in the Americas. With the success of the plantations in America, what is known as the triangular trade began to form, and this trade majorly affected the world’s economies and
Labor exploitation was the key for the effectiveness of european expansion in the new world and define slavery as a principal component for global capitalism until it was not longer profitable. The atlantic slave trade influence europe economic growth and market development to rapidly spread through the atlantic trade. It was a intense dependence on the triangular trade that made merchants made big profits at the expense of the exploited labour abroad. Merchants were involved in all three sides of the triangle trade that allowed the transportation of slaves from Europe to Africa where goods were traded for slaves and then those slaves were brought to the Americas for the cultivation food crops and other raw materials; these later were brought back to Europe, Africa and the Americas to be sold. Resistance and revolts against the trade of slave was stronger in African areas where european demographic power was lower but “It was not until 1780s that increasing european along the west of africa coast finally drove up the price of slaves” and the overproduction of sugar in the caribbean and other raw materials lead the fall in the selling price of these products (shillington p181) european nations began to question whether the trade was still profitable or not. Britain was the first to completely abolished slavery in 1834 when manufactures found european labor in factories more efficient and less expensive than plantations. It was follow for the french colonies 1848, Cuba in
The slave trade was the largest contributor to the British economy during the 18th century. Tomas Butler stated “The profits from the slave trade were part of the bedrock of our country's industrial development. Many people and institutions in every part of the country were complicit in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.” In the early Americas, Britain supplied a vast majority of the slaves to the new world to be sold to the highest bidder. During the slave trade British ships made over ten thousand voyages and enslaved approximately 3.4 billion Africans. Some of these ships would make a profit of twenty to fifty percent. Back in England the king and the ship owners were not the only people benefiting from the slave trade. Everyone from the factory owners to the factory workers were benefited as an effect of the slave trade. The upper-class citizens were definitely making the big dollars. These people included the owners of the slave ships, the factory owners, who were able to produce and sell the products that the Africans and Americans needed and wanted, bankers who made money from the interest they earned on loans from people who borrowed money for the long voyage, and