Impact of empire- slave trade, EIC, south sea bubble and bank of england

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67 Terms

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transatlantic slave trade

england exchanged goods for slaves in africa

then slaves are sold in the americas

and then goods from the americas are taken back to england

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what was the royal africa company?

company selling slaves

created by the stuart royal family for their own personal gain

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how did the RAC have a monopoly?

because of the Royal Charter that set up the Company, no one else was allowed to profit and no other companies could get involved

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headquarters of RAC

the fortress of cape coast castle

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cape coast castle

- ghana

- main purpose was to imprison captured african people and load them onto ships

- the slaves would be forced to spend weeks or months in disease-ridden, overcrowded, windowless underground 'slave holes' in the castle

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what did the RAC achieve with their monopoly?

Exported goods worth £1.5 million

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examples of goods that RAC traded from africa

gold

ivory

mahogany hardwood

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example of how terrible living conditions were for slaves

RAC bought 125,000 africans. of these, 1/5 died on the journey

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when did RAC lose it's monopoly?

1698

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why did the RAC lose it's monopoly?

after the glorious revolution, william had agreed to move power away from the monarch and towards the commercial world of merchants and private entrepreneurs.

So, in 1698, the triangular trade was opened up to private businesses

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who benefitted from the transatlantic slave trade?

everyone involved in the trade profited.

the trading centres on the african coast provided job opportunites for a range of skills at a time of high unemployment in England

RAC records show that they had free africans on their payroll too

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when was the treaty of utrecht?

1713

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terms of the treaty of utrecht

established britain as the major slave-trading nation

granted britain the asiento

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asiento

under a treaty signed by portugal, spain was not allowed to build forts or buy labour on the african coast.

So, in exchange for gold bullion from the spanish (which could then be used in trade with india) england would give the spanish their slaves

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what company was set up in order to trade gold bullion with the spanish?

The South Sea Company

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south sea company

after britain was given the right to the asiento, britain funnelled this pwoer into the private company to make the most of it's profits

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when was the south sea company set up?

1711

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why did people rush to buy shares in teh company

- government approved the company's scheme to minimise and manage National Debt

- company published propaganda

- the company artificially increased the share price to make it seem very successfull

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side effects of the rise of the 'south sea bubble'

- thousands of people invested their savings into the company

- there was a lot of corrupt insider dealing by people in the company

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when did the 'bubble' burst?

1720

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how the 'bubble' burst

- the company lent large amounts to people so that they could buy shares

- some shareholders, realising the share value was far too high for the company to support, started selling their shares

- as people sold their shares, their value decreased, so other shareholders panicked. there was a rush as everyone tried to sell their shares

- as the company didn't have the money to pay people back, most shareholders lost all their money and the company collapsed

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effects of the collapse

- large numbers of people suffered- many lost all their life savings

- bubble act

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bubble act

1720

from now on any new company needed to be granted a royal charter

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chattel enslavement

did not recognise the enslaved as human beings, but as commodities that could be bought and sold

slave owners would even brand their slaves

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impact of enslavement on west africa

- the loss of population had a devastating humanitarian impact

- traditional african industries declined and dissolved

- created a widening economic gap between Europe and Africa and took away the young, able-bodied people, weakening africa and strengthening europe

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what challenges did the triangular trade present?

- resistance in africa

- uprisings on slave ships

- piracy

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resistance in africa + slave rebellions

- some african rulers fought against human trafficking, attacking and destroying european forts

- slave rebellions were common (see later flashcards)

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uprisings on slave ships

there were more than 500 rebellions on slave ships

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cause of piracy

after the war of spanish succession, many men from the navy were laid off. as a result, there weren't enough jobs so may men turned to piracy.

additionally, the living standards of sailors working on slave ships were so poor that many sailors chose to become pirates

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pirate crewws

many pirate crews were multi-racial and multinational, including africans freed from slave ships.

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consequence of piracy

due to the damage that piracy was doing on the slave trade, capturing 100 slave ships in the early 1720s, the 1722 Suppression of Piracy Act was passed, calling for the imprisonment and execution of pirates

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what was grown on the plantations in the americas?

cotton

tobacco

sugar

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who mainly worked on plantations in the mid-1600s

indentured servants

convicts

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what happened in plantations between 1660-1700

most indentured servants died of disease, and the percentage of black population in the Caribbean doubled

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advantages of enslaved african workers

- price was going down, encouraging plantation owners to buy more

- because they were 'owned', they and their children were the planter's permanent property

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disadvantages of european servants

- temporary

- as wages rose in england, indentured servants became more expensive

- high death rate

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plantocracy definition

societies controlled and governed by and for the planters, backed up by military force and law

dominated by wealthy merchants and businessmen

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why did plantocracies have such strong support from the government?

- access to cash crops that could be sold in britain and overseas

- work opportunities at a time of high unemployment in britain

- economic and strategic advance over other european powers

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how did enslaved workers benefit the planocracy system?

- the plantations needed ready access to cheap workers and the slave trade provided them with permanent, free labour.

- the cost of maintaining them was small and the cost to buy one was nothing in comparison to how much that slave would generate for them

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why was the slave system so profitable?

1. In Britain more and more people wanted to buy sugar (PROFIT for merchants)

2. To meet their needs, the planters ordered more enslaved Africans from the West African court for less and less (PROFIT for slave traders)

3. In the Caribbean, more and more sugar was produced on the plantations (PROFIT for plantation owners)

4. Across the Atlantic, increased shipments of sugar to Britain (PROFIT for shipping companies) 5. In Britain, those who profited had more SPENDING POWER - money to spend on luxuries

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who were the maroons?

Escaped slaves from plantations in Jamaica who formed their own communities in the mountains

they welcomed runaways and fought guerrilla wars against the planters

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how successful was the marroons' challenge to the planters?

so successful that, in 1739, the two sides signed a compromise treaty to end the First Marroon War

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when was the east india company formed?

1600 by a royal charter from Queen Elizabeth I

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EIC's intention

to carry out trade with south and southeast asia, concentrating on India and China

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how was the EIC structured?

it was an entirely private business, a joint stock company with wealthy shareholders and no government involvement

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what powers was the EIC granted?

- it could mint its own money

- run its own justice system

- wage war

- granted a monopoly of English trade in asia

- had it's own army and navy

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EIC's biggest challenge

mughal empire:

had a far larger economy than britain

while many of india's resources were in great demand in england, india had no need for english goods

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how did the EIC overcome that challenge?

the asiento:

meant that britain now had access to gold and silver bullion from spanish colonies in america which india was interested in

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who was aurangzeb?

mughal emperor

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when and why did the EIC's relationship with aurangzeb collapse?

the EIC was trying to negotiate a firman which would grant special trading rights across india, but the the company's governer interfered and the emperor broke of the talks

in response, the governer started teh Anglo-Mughal war. Aurangzeb easily defeated the EIC, so they surrendedered and were forced to pay a huge fine in return for trading rights

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what were the outcomes of the EIC's surrender in the Anglo-mughal war?

- embarassment for england, bruising their reputation and relationship with india

- however another outcome was that the Company was sable to set up a new 'factory' (trading post) in Kolkata

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when did they set up their trading post in kolkata?

1690

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significance of kolkata

Britain would later rule India from there for 200 years

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period of misfortune for the EIC

1688-1702

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examples of EIC blows 1688-1702

- parliament passed a resoution saying that all should have equal right to trade in the East Indies- the EICs monopoly was broken

- wages for wool and silk weavers were so low that there were several marches and protests against the EIC in 1696 and 1697

- in 1698, parliament set up a new company to trade with Asia and the EIC given three years to close itself down

- in 1700, a new law banned the import of asian silk and cotton to england

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period of EIC gain

1702-1730

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examples of EIC gains 1702-30

- the EIC's directors used the 3 years' grace to buy up shares in the new company

- United Company of Merchants Trading to the East Indies

- EIC created new markets

- offered employment opportunities

- fall of mughal empire

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United Company of Merchants Trading to East Indies

1702

the EIC and new companies agreed to merge, making the United Company of Merchants Trading to the East Indies- just the EIC in another form with more of a monopoly.

To cope with the ban on imports, it put the asian cloth on ships sailing to Cape Coast and traded it for enslaved africans

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EIC's creation of new markets

- EIC created new markets globally, especially the opium trade in China (creating a widespread drug addiction with devastating effects) and tea trade in Britain.

--> the EIC was now profiting from opium addiction in the east and tea addiction in the west

- as demand for luxury commodities grew in England, its share price and profits increased.

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EIC employment opportunites

- offered employment opportunities to british people- especially attractive to scots after 1707

- company expanded across asia, employing large numbers of asian seamen (lascars) to work on its growing fleet of merchant ships

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fall of mughal empire

After aurangzeb died in 1707, mughal rule weakened

the EIC took advantage of this to expand its own power

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why was the period 1688-1730 significant economically?

a time of the accumulation of vast wealth and emergence of the middle class by the privatisation of the economy

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when was the bank of england set up?

1694

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why was the bank of england set up?

in order to raise a loan for william to spend on his colonial wars

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consequences of the bank of england

the creation of National Debt

bank could also lend to the public and smaller businesses (credit)

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national debt definition

the debt owed by a government- and therefore the taxpayers- borrowing from its banks so that it can finance its activities

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significance of the bank of england

- became the main storage for Britain's bullion, which the South Sea Company exchanged slaves for with the spanish, which could then be used in trades with India

- credit system meant that people could invest--> south sea bubble