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The Royal African Company (RAC) started trading in 1672 and by 1689 it had transported nearly 90,000 Africans to the Americas. James, Duke of York, was the governor and largest shareholder. The company had 15 Lord Mayors of London and 25 sheriffs of London among its shareholders.

By 1698, the number of ports and slave traders had grown greatly, and Bristol was competing with London. In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht was drawn up with Britain gaining the “asiento”. The asiento was the right to carry enslaved Africans to the Spanish Americas. The British government sold this privilege to the South Sea Company (SSC) for £7.5 million. A London bookseller, Thomas Guy, sold his shares in SSC and used his fortune to establish Guy’s Hospital. The SSC transported around 64,000 enslaved Africans between 1715 and 1731.

Other existing large British institutions that were built or grew from the African slave trade are the Bank of England, HSBC Bank, Barclays Bank, Lloyd’s of London, the National Gallery and the Houses of Parliament. Bristol was built on slave labour - important landmarks include Pero’s Bridge, Georgian terraces in the town centre, exclusive neighbourhoods in the hills and imposing church buildings.

Between 1710 and 1730, records show that nearly 200,000 enslaved Africans were transported across the Atlantic in British ships. Unofficially, the number is much greater. Humphrey Morice of Mincing Lane was one of London’s greatest traders. He was an MP and also governor of the Bank of England between 1727 and 1728. The planters in the Caribbean and plantation owners in Britain must not be forgotten - on top of their fortunes from slave labour, they gained an extra £20 million compensation for the loss of their slaves after abolition. The ex-slaves gained nothing.

Bristol and Liverpool overtook London as the leading slaving ports in the 1730s. London, however, continued trading enslaved Africans until the end of the trade and remained the main centre for financing, insuring and managing the trade.

The African World Reparation and Repatriation Truth Commission has put the bill for the transatlantic slave trade at £400,000 billion. Another team of experts using a precise and logical formula calculated that lost wages, potential income and the impact of lives lost would come to a price of £7.5 Trillion, today.