What was royal african company

Bur during the early years of the 17th century, the English generally viewed the trading of human lives with a certain degree of contempt. By , however, with the growth of sugar plantations in the Caribbean and the corresponding need for labor, the views of the English had changed.

They, too, would become regular participants in the trade. A new objective clearly stated that the company would engage in the slave trade. It was replaced by the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa in Royally chartered companies like the Royal African Company were important tools in the opening of the African continent to slave trade and later imperial colonizing ambitions. This first attempt failed due to factors relating to a war with Holland. It was succeeded by the African Company of Merchants.

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Login Signup. As profits piled up and slavery spread through the American colonies, the British crown decided to exert control over the slave trade to the colonies and the wealth it generated. According to the Navigation Act of , only English-owned ships could enter colonial ports. Credit: Public Domain. From , the company transported an average of 5, slaves per year, most of which were shipped to colonies in the Caribbean and Virginia.