English Funders and Profiteers of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

The first West Africans that were taken to Jamaica were by the Spanish in 1513, when King Ferdinand granted permission for Esquivel (Governor of Jamaica) to import three Africans as house servants. These Africans were bought from the Portuguese. King Manuel of Portugal had invaded Congo and was profiting greatly from his colony in Central America. Between 1514 and 1521, King Ferdinand of Spain funded and profited greatly from the labour of more slaves imported into Jamaica.

After the English captured Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655, the city of London provided the money for many slaving voyages, and other London institutions insured slaves and cargoes and traded plantation goods. During the 17th and early 18th centuries, London was also Britain’s major port and wealthy London merchants and noblemen owned the slave ships.

John Hawkins, a merchant adventurer and later a naval administrator, was the first English trader. His first involvement was in 1562 and was supported by Elizabeth I, Sir Thomas Lodge who was Lord Mayor of London and other London merchants. They made a fortune and Queen Elizabeth I lent Hawkins a royal ship, the 700-ton Jesus of Lubeck, for his second voyage.

Sir Robert Rich (later the Earl of Warwick) owned plantations in Virginia. He was one of the founders of the London-based Company of Adventurers to Guinea and Benin, which traded Africans between West Africa and the Americas. King Charles I granted a licence to another syndicate of London merchants in 1632 for the trading of slaves. Throughout the period of the transatlantic slave trade, there were many “illegal” traders operating, which there are no records of.

In 1660, King Charles II granted a charter to the Royal Adventurers into Africa, which traded in African gold, slaves and other African goods. Supporters of the company included members of the royal family, important nobles and wealthy London merchants. Samuel Pepys was a shareholder in the new company. Gold from West Africa were minted into coins and popularly known as “guineas” and in 1665, the company was estimated to earn £100,000 from transporting enslaved Africans to the West Indies.

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