XVᵉ siècle – XVIIIᵉ siècle
Atlantic seaboard of West and Central Africa
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
The Atlantic trading-post economy developed along the African Atlantic seaboard from the sixteenth century and rested heavily on the slave trade. Portuguese entrepôts began as fortified stations and exchanged imported goods for gold, enslaved people, leather, gum, ivory, amber, civet, cowries, cotton, and salt. Major posts such as Albreda, Cacheu, Santiago de Cape Verde, El Mina, Ketu, Calabar, and San Salvador remained small and did little to stimulate local prosperity. At the same time, they connected African resources and labour to American mines, European industry, finance, and international capitalism.
Poursuivre l’exploration
Le récit
From the sixteenth century, an entrepôt or trading-post economy took shape along the Atlantic seaboard. Unlike the predatory economy described for the Mediterranean, Nile, and Indian Ocean regions, this system was organized through maritime stations that were initially fortresses. These posts became centers of commercial exchange, but also scenes of violence and spoliation.
On the Guinea and equatorial coasts, Portuguese merchants often looted more than they bought and had few goods of local economic value to offer. Wine and iron bars were exchanged for gold, enslaved people, leather, gum, ivory, amber, yellow civet, cowries, cotton, and salt. In the Gulf of Guinea, Portuguese traders bought from the Akan and resold goods on the Nigerian coast, in Kongo, or in Angola; in Senegambia, they established themselves in ports as merchants.
The trading posts did not promote broad local prosperity. Before 1800, Albreda, Cacheu, Santiago de Cape Verde, El Mina, Ketu, Calabar, and San Salvador were identified as important stations, yet each had fewer than 5,000 inhabitants. Apart from Europeans, many residents were laptos, or local interpreters, while the system’s central function remained the Atlantic slave trade and the depopulation of African societies.
The same network nevertheless had major consequences for the wider world economy. After the discovery of American mines, the posts supplied substantial quantities of the world’s gold and silver and became sources of the labour force used to develop the Americas. They therefore helped sustain world trade while functioning as a foundation for European and international capitalism.
XVᵉ siècle – XVIIIᵉ siècle
Atlantic seaboard of West and Central Africa
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
The Atlantic trading-post economy developed along the African Atlantic seaboard from the sixteenth century and rested heavily on the slave trade. Portuguese entrepôts began as fortified stations and exchanged imported goods for gold, enslaved people, leather, gum, ivory, amber, civet, cowries, cotton, and salt. Major posts such as Albreda, Cacheu, Santiago de Cape Verde, El Mina, Ketu, Calabar, and San Salvador remained small and did little to stimulate local prosperity. At the same time, they connected African resources and labour to American mines, European industry, finance, and international capitalism.
Poursuivre l’exploration
Le récit
From the sixteenth century, an entrepôt or trading-post economy took shape along the Atlantic seaboard. Unlike the predatory economy described for the Mediterranean, Nile, and Indian Ocean regions, this system was organized through maritime stations that were initially fortresses. These posts became centers of commercial exchange, but also scenes of violence and spoliation.
On the Guinea and equatorial coasts, Portuguese merchants often looted more than they bought and had few goods of local economic value to offer. Wine and iron bars were exchanged for gold, enslaved people, leather, gum, ivory, amber, yellow civet, cowries, cotton, and salt. In the Gulf of Guinea, Portuguese traders bought from the Akan and resold goods on the Nigerian coast, in Kongo, or in Angola; in Senegambia, they established themselves in ports as merchants.
The trading posts did not promote broad local prosperity. Before 1800, Albreda, Cacheu, Santiago de Cape Verde, El Mina, Ketu, Calabar, and San Salvador were identified as important stations, yet each had fewer than 5,000 inhabitants. Apart from Europeans, many residents were laptos, or local interpreters, while the system’s central function remained the Atlantic slave trade and the depopulation of African societies.
The same network nevertheless had major consequences for the wider world economy. After the discovery of American mines, the posts supplied substantial quantities of the world’s gold and silver and became sources of the labour force used to develop the Americas. They therefore helped sustain world trade while functioning as a foundation for European and international capitalism.