Cross-Cultural Trade and the Slave Ship the Bonne Société: Baskets of Goods, Diverse Sellers, and Time Pressure on the African Coast

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Middlebury College; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050725100880
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 874-913
• 关键词: prices; 18th-century; profitability; atlantic; PRODUCTIVITY; merchants; authority; transport; BUSINESS; benguela

摘要

The eighteenth-century French slave ship the Bonne Soci & eacute;t & eacute; traded bundles of goods in exchange for slaves in Loango. We present detailed evidence from the ship's trading log that decomposes the goods in the bundle and identifies the European and African merchants selling captives to the ship. Prices steadily increased throughout the captain's stay in port, and the captain increased the bundle's price by adding more goods and adding high-priced goods. Sellers participated both as one-shot traders and as repeat traders. These results add a nuanced picture of how this destructive trade worked in practice.