Provisioning The Slave Trade

Abstract

The article studies the supply of corn (maize) by African societies for the provisioning of European slave-ships on the Gold Coast, focusing on one particular community, the Fante, in the late seventeenth century. Its principal evidential basis is the local correspondence of the English Royal African Company between 1681–99, recently published by the author. Aspects addressed include: the scale of the trade; its relation to the cycle of local agricultural production; the transportation of corn from the interior, and by sea along the coast; the identity of the African suppliers; the determination of prices; and the significance of the trade for the long-term growth of the domestic economy.