Triangular Trade

The term 'Triangular Trade' was used to refer to the slave trade, which played a significant role in the American history. This trade, which was carried out between England, Africa and North America, flourished throughout the 17th and the 18th century. Its astounding success can be attributed to the fact that the merchants involved in it garnered huge profits at each of the three phases of the trade. The name Triangular Trade or Triangle Trade was derived from the fact that the route of this roughly resembled a triangle on the map.

Trans-Atlantic Triangular Trade

In general, the term 'triangular trade' can be used to refer to any trade carried out between three points. In case of the Trans-Atlantic Triangular Trade, these three points were Europe, Africa and North America. The concept implies trading of the commodities which are not required in the particular region, in lieu of the required commodities available in the other region. In the ancient world, wherein barter services were in practice and sea route was the only mode of transport, this concept had several benefits, which made it a huge success.

The 3 Phases

Basically, the Triangular Trade had three phases - Europe to Africa, Africa to North America and North America to Europe, with each of these phases having peculiar characteristics of their own. Given below are the details of each of these three phases.

The First Phase: The first phase of the trade was the journey from Europe to Africa. In this phase, manufactured goods were loaded onto the ship at the European ports and taken to Africa, where they were supposed to be exchanged with the slaves. These manufactured goods included cloth, metals goods, spirit, cooking utensils, beads etc. Among the various finished products, arms and ammunition were important as they were used by the salve traders for their territorial expansion, which in turn meant access to more slaves. All these goods were exchanged for slaves in the African continent, which were put on the ships and taken to the American slave market.

The Second Phase: The journey of ships laden with the slaves from Africa was the second phase of the Triangular Trade - notoriously referred to as the 'middle passage'. A single ship was packed with slaves beyond its capacity, as a result of which they were subjected to terrible conditions on board, with minimal food and water. The conditions on these ships were so harsh that approximately 13 percent slaves died in course of the journey. These slaves fetched a decent sum in the American market, and hence the merchants were not quite concerned about a few deaths that occurred during the journey. As the ships anchored on the American ports, these slaves were exchanged for raw goods, which were taken to Europe.

The Third Phase: The third and the final phase of the Triangular Trade was the shipment of raw goods from the American plantations, where they were produced, to the European industries, where they were required to manufacture the finished goods. These raw goods included cotton, sugar, molasses, tobacco etc., which were used by the European industries to produce the finished goods. For instance, molasses was an important requirement of the European distilleries. As the ships docked at the ports in Europe, this raw material was unloaded, and the finished goods were loaded. Thus started the cycle all over again.

The plantation owners in the European colonies in America required slave laborers to produce the raw material which was required by the industries in Europe. The European industries required raw material which was produced in the New World colonies, and the African merchants required manufactured goods from Europe, which had a decent share of market in Africa. The Trade ensured that all these requirements were met, and the balance was maintained.

Eventually, the role of Europe in the Triangular Trade was taken over by developing region of New England, as the merchants here started to produce finished goods from the raw material readily available in the New World. These goods were exported to Africa, in lieu of slaves required at the plantations, and also circulated within the New World itself. Everything appeared glorious until the beginning of the 19th century, when Great Britain outlawed the slave trade in 1807. The United States followed the same in the following year, and thus brought the glorious days of slave trade to an abrupt end. Eventually, the British naval forces were ordered to monitor the Triangular Trade routes in order to make sure that this illegal trade was brought to an end.