Restoration England - Trade

Question 1

why was trade a concern for Restoration England?

Answer 1

• products like sugar, coffee, tea and cotton could not be grown in Britain and there was an increasing demand for them
• one option was to buy these products from rival countries but this would simply increase those countries’ wealth

Question 2

what was the policy of ‘mercantilism’?

Answer 2

• this was a policy which ensured the money went to British businesses rather than foreign ones and only British ships were allowed to transport goods

Question 3

why were the Navigation Acts introduced?

Answer 3

• it was accepted that there was a limited amount of wealth and if a rival country was involved in British trade that meant that the wealth would move into foreign hands
• the Acts were designed to stop this from happening

Question 4

what were the key points of the Navigation Acts?

Answer 4

• Only British ships could transport goods between the colonies and Britain
• Crews must be at least three-quarters British
• goods such as sugar, tobacco and cotton that were produced in the colonies could be exported only to Britain and its colonies
• from 1663 all goods had to go via Britain in order to be taxed and colonies had to buy all their manufactured goods in Britain
• the 1673 Act banned the direct trading of raw materials between colonies

Question 5

when did the slave trade of Africans begin?

Answer 5

• African people were first traded as slaves during the reign of Elizabeth I
• merchants and privateers would capture them, or trade with tribal leaders and kings, and then take them to the Americas to trade for goods
• the trade was on a small scale, however, and up to individuals to organise and make deals among themselves

Question 6

how did African slave trade develop into the seventeenth century?

Answer 6

• as the British colonies in the Caribbean grew and developed during the Restoration, a larger workforce was needed to manage the plantations
• African slaves were the answer
• a more extensive operation was needed than had ever existed before

Question 7

what company was given the exclusive right to trade in the British territories of West Africa?

Answer 7

• The Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa

Question 8

who set up the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa?

Answer 8

• it was set up by Charles II in 1660 and was led by his brother, the Duke of York

Question 9

why was the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa originally set up?

Answer 9

• its initial purpose was to trade in the region’s gold along the River Gambia

Question 10

what happened to the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa after the Second Anglo-Dutch War?

Answer 10

• after the end of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1667, the company fell into debt and was relaunched as the Royal African Company, complete with a new royal charter in 1672
• the company had recognised the need for slave labour in the Caribbean and began to fill this gap in the market in the 1680s, the company was transporting around 5000 slaves a year across the Atlantic

Question 11

what would a slave traded by the Royal African Company be branded with?

Answer 11

• slaves were branded with either the company’s initials (RAC) or the initials of its governor, the Duke of York (DY)

Question 12

why did Europeans bring African slaves into America?

Answer 12

• Millions of native people in South and North America were killed by diseases like smallpox that were brought over by the Europeans
• bringing in strong and healthy men and women from Africa to replace them seemed logical

Question 13

how did Europeans view African slaves as?

Answer 13

• to the European businessmen, African men, women and children were simply other commodities to be bought and sold, and the trade in slaves became a key part of the success of the English trade in general

Question 14

who profited from the slave trade?

Answer 14

• slave ship owners
• slave traders
• factory owners
• bankers
• ports
• plantation owner
• ordinary people

Question 15

how did slave ship owners benefit from the slave trade?

Answer 15

• up to 50 per cent profit could be made by ship owners who often never left Britain

Question 16

how did factory owners benefit from the slave trade?

Answer 16

• products like textiles could be sold in the colonies and raw materials that had been grown by slaves were used in manufacturing, particularly in the north of England
• Ambrose Crowley, an iron merchant from County Durham, produced chains for use on the ships

Question 17

how did bankers benefit from the slave trade?

Answer 17

• merchants needed to borrow money to fund their long voyages and banks could earn from the interest on these loans

Question 18

how did ports benefit from the slave trade?

Answer 18

• in the seventeenth century, London was one of the most important trading places because of its transport links on the River Thames and the docks
• merchants based in Blackheath, Greenwich and Deptford dealt with around 75% of the sugarcane imports from the colonies
• Glasgow and Greenock were the main tobacco ports in Scotland

Question 19

how did plantation owners benefit from the slave trade?

Answer 19

• huge amounts of money could be made y using slave labour as it avoided the need to pay wages
• some owners became extremely wealthy
• by the 1700s, a third of Jamaican plantations were owned by Scots, some of whom dressed their slaves in their clan tartan

Question 20

how did ordinary people benefit from the slave trade?

Answer 20

• the trade provided many jobs for people in Britain, particularly in factories
• Birmingham had over 4000 people making guns to sell to slave traders

Question 21

how did slave trade influence new fashions and trends?

Answer 21

• sugar, cotton and tobacco became very popular with the English, particularly the wealthier classes
• ## sugar became widely used as the popularity of tea drinking grew