The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English trading company established in 1660 by the House of Stuart and City of London merchants to trade along the West African coast. The company's original purpose was to trade for gold in the Gambia River, as Prince Rupert of the Rhine had identified gold deposits in the region during the Interregnum.
Royal African Company Coat of Arms
The RAC was overseen by the Duke of York, the brother of Charles II of England; the RAC was founded after Charles II ascended to the English throne in the 1660 Stuart Restoration, and he granted it a monopoly on all English trade with Africa. While the company's original purpose was to trade for gold in the Gambia River, as Prince Rupert of the Rhine had identified gold deposits in the region during the Interregnum, the RAC quickly began trading in slaves, who became its largest commodity. Historians have estimated that the RAC shipped more African slaves to the Americas during the Atlantic slave trade than any other company.
The RAC also dealt in other commodities such as ivory, which were primarily sourced from the Gold Coast region. On the west coast of Africa the few Europeans lived in fortified factories (trading posts). They had no sovereignty over the land or its natives, and very little immunity to tropical diseases. The coastal tribes acted as intermediaries between them and the slave-hunters of the interior. There was little incentive for European men to explore up the rivers, and few of them did so. The atmosphere might have been one of quiet routine for the traders had there not been acute rivalries between the European powers; especially the Dutch, who made use of native allies against their rivals.
Before the Restoration, the Dutch had been the main suppliers of slaves to the English West Indian plantations, but it was part of the policy of the English Navigation Acts to oust them from this lucrative trade. Between 1676 and 1700, the value of gold exports from Africa was similar to the total value of slave exports.
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Establishment and Monopoly
Originally known as the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading into Africa, by its charter issued on 18 December 1660 it was granted a monopoly over English trade along the west coast of Africa, with the principal objective being the search for gold. In 1663, a new charter was obtained which also mentioned the trade in slaves. This was the third English African Company, but it made a fresh start in the slave trade and there was only one factory of importance for it to take over from the East India Company, which had leased it as a calling-place on the sea-route round the Cape. This was Cormantin, a few miles east of the Dutch station of Cape Coast Castle, now in Ghana.
In 1663, as a prelude to the Dutch war, Captain Holmes's expedition captured or destroyed all the Dutch settlements on the coast, and in 1664, Fort James was founded on an island about twenty miles up the Gambia river, as a new centre for English trade and power. This, however, was only the beginning of a series of captures and recaptures. In the same year, de Ruyter won back all the Dutch forts except Cape Coast Castle and also took Cormantin. Forts served as staging and trading stations, and the company was responsible for seizing any English ships that attempted to operate in violation of its monopoly (known as interlopers).
The company fell heavily into debt in 1667, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The African Company was ruined by its losses and surrendered its charter in 1672, to be followed by the still more ambitious Royal African Company of England. Its new charter was broader than the old one and included the right to set up forts and factories, maintain troops, and exercise martial law in West Africa, in pursuit of trade in "gold, silver, negroes, slaves, goods, wares and merchandises whatsoever".
Until 1687, the company was very prosperous. It set up six forts on the Gold Coast, and another post at Ouidah, farther east on the Slave Coast, which became its principal centre for trade. Cape Coast Castle was strengthened and rose to be second in importance only to the Dutch factory at Elmina.
Company flag (c. 1700)
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In the 1680s, the company was transporting about 5,000 enslaved people a year to markets primarily in the Caribbean across the Atlantic. Many were branded with the letters "DoY", for its Governor, the Duke of York, who succeeded his brother on the throne in 1685, becoming King James II. Between 1672 and 1731, the Royal African Company transported 187,697 enslaved people on company-owned ships (653 voyages) to English colonies in the Americas.
In 1689, the company acknowledged that it had lost its monopoly with the end of royal power in the Glorious Revolution, and it ceased issuing letters of marque. Edward Colston transferred a large segment of his original shareholding to William III at the beginning of 1689, securing the new regime's favour. To maintain the company and its infrastructure and end its monopoly, parliament passed the Trade with Africa Act 1697 (9 Will. 3 c.
From 1694 to 1700, the company was a major participant in the Komenda Wars in the port city Komenda in the Eguafo Kingdom in modern-day Ghana. The company allied with a merchant prince named John Cabess and various neighbouring African kingdoms to depose the king of Eguafo and establish a permanent fort and factory in Komenda.
The English took two French forts and lost them again, after which the French destroyed Fort James. The place appears to have been soon regained and in the War of Spanish Succession to have been twice retaken by the French. In the treaty of Utrecht it remained English.
From 1668 to 1722, the Royal African Company provided gold to the English Mint. Coins made with such gold are designed with an elephant below the bust of the king and/or queen. Sir Jeffrey Jeffreys, Commander of affairs of Leeward Isles in England 1690 - c.
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The Atlantic Slave Trade: Crash Course World History #24
The End of the Monopoly and Dissolution
Many factors contributed to the loss of the Royal African Company’s monopoly in 1689. First and foremost, the Company was not achieving a profit; as a matter of fact, it resorted to borrowing money to pay dividends. Then there were the complaints from the planters. The demand for slaves was always too high for the Company alone to supply, and the planters urged that the monopoly be abolished so that more slaves could be imported.
Following the loss in 1712 of its previous monopoly over British trade with West Africa, the Royal African Company found itself unable to compete with smaller, lower-cost British slave traders and nearly collapsed entirely. Salvation seemed to arrive in 1720 in the person of James Brydges, the Duke of Chandos, who led a massive re-capitalization of the company and made the strategic decision to move its focus to the commodity trade between Europe and Africa and on the search for new botanical and mineral resources in Africa itself.
While Chandos directed the RAC’s employees in implementing this radical new scheme, he kept it secret from his fellow shareholders, leading them to believe that his plans were aimed at revitalizing the company’s mature but declining line of business in the transatlantic slave trade. The Duke’s strategy, however, proved overly ambitious and failed to reverse the company’s decline.
Map of Royal African Company factories transferred to the African Company of Merchants
The Royal African Company was dissolved by the African Company Act 1750, with its assets being transferred to the African Company of Merchants. As early as 1618, King James I had granted a patent to a company that wanted to trade for gold and precious woods in Africa. Other groups also received rights to trade in Africa, but never dealt with slaves in any major way. English involvement in the slave trade would intensify after 1663, when a new patent was issued to the Company of Royal Adventurers.
England had realized the money to be made trading slaves to the West Indies and Virginia. The first documented arrival of Africans to Virginia was in 1619, when an English warship, White Lion, arrived at Point Comfort in present-day Hampton. By 1660, slavery as we think of it today was established in Virginia.
Once the Navigation Act was passed, Virginia planters were forced to rely on the Mother Country to supply them with their labor force. The Royal African Company also had agents in Virginia to whom slaves were delivered. These agents received a seven-percent commission on sales.
Key Figures Associated with the Royal African Company
Several prominent individuals were associated with the Royal African Company, including:
- The Duke of York (later King James II): Oversaw the company's operations.
- Edward Colston: A major member who later became known for his philanthropy.
- Thomas Pindar: A merchant who produced propaganda in support of the company's monopoly.
Royal African Company: 5 Must-Know Facts
- The Royal African Company was granted a monopoly over the English slave trade to West Africa by King Charles II, making it one of the most powerful trading companies of its time.
- The company transported over 100,000 enslaved Africans to the Americas during its peak years, significantly contributing to the population of enslaved laborers in British colonies.
- The company's headquarters was located in London, but it operated several forts along the West African coast to facilitate its trade operations.
- Competition from other European nations and private traders eventually weakened the Royal African Company's monopoly, leading to its decline in influence by the 18th century.
- The profits generated by the Royal African Company not only enriched its investors but also contributed to Britain's overall economic growth during the early stages of industrialization.
Estimated Slave Trade Figures by the Royal African Company
The following table summarizes the estimated figures of enslaved people transported by the Royal African Company:
| Time Period | Enslaved People Transported | Voyages |
|---|---|---|
| 1672-1731 | 187,697 | 653 |
