The triangular trade between Europe, Africa, and the New
World, was one of the most lucrative aspects of the mercantile
economy. Mercantilism sought to keep each country economically
self-sufficient. Within this framework the role of the colony was
to provide the mother country with raw materials which it could
not produce for itself and to be a market for the consumption of
many of the manufactured goods produced within the mother
country.
This triangular trade began in Europe with the purchase
of guns, gunpowder, cheap cotton, and trinkets of all kinds.
These were shipped to the coast of West Africa and unloaded at a
trading station. At key points along the coast, the European
nations had made treaties with the local rulers allowing them to
set up trading stations and slave factories. At this point, the
European traders entered into hard bargaining sessions with the
representatives of the local ruler in which the manufactured
goods from Europe, especially guns, were traded for African
slaves. When the deal was completed, the slaves were loaded on
the ship, and the captain set sail for the New World.
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