Editing Royal African Company (section)

==History==
===Background===
On the west coast of Africa the few Europeans lived in fortified [[Factory (trading post)|factories]] (trading posts). They had no sovereignty over the land or its natives, and very little immunity to tropical diseases. The coastal tribes acted as intermediaries between them and the slave-hunters of the interior. There was little incentive for European men to explore up the rivers, and few of them did so. The atmosphere might have been one of quiet routine for the traders had there not been acute rivalries between the European powers; especially the Dutch, who made use of native allies against their rivals. Before the [[Stuart Restoration|Restoration]], the Dutch had been the main suppliers of slaves to the English West Indian plantations, but it was part of the policy of the English [[Navigation Acts]] to oust them from this lucrative trade.<ref name="Clark">{{cite book |last=Clark |first=Sir George |date=1956 |title=The Later Stuarts, 1660–1714 |location=The Oxford History of England |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=331–333 |isbn=0-19-821702-1}}</ref> Between 1676 and 1700, the value of gold exports from Africa was similar to the total value of slave exports. After the [[Peace of Ryswick]] in 1697, the price of slaves in Africa and the number of slaves exported doubled; from then, until trade diminished after 1807, slaves were clearly the most valuable export of Africa.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bean |first=Richard |date=1974 |title=A Note on the Relative Importance of Slaves and Gold in West African Exports |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/180664 |journal=The Journal of African History |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=351–356 |issn=0021-8537}}</ref>

===Company of Royal Adventurers Trading into Africa===
[[File:1686-Guinea-elephant-and-castle-James-II.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|1686 English [[guinea (coin)|guinea]] showing the Royal African Company's symbol, an [[Howdah#Elephant and castle symbol|elephant and castle]], under the bust of [[James II of England|James II]]]]
Originally known as the '''Company of Royal Adventurers Trading into Africa''', by its [[charter]] issued on 18 December 1660 it was granted a [[monopoly]] over [[England|English]] trade along the west coast of [[Africa]], with the principal objective being the search for [[gold]]. The company was to be run by a committee of six: the [[Philip Herbert, 5th Earl of Pembroke|Earl of Pembroke]], [[William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven (1608–1697)|Lord Craven]], George Caveret, [[Elisha Leighton|Ellis Leighton]] and [[Cornelius Vermuyden]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2713536?seq=1|title=The Royal Adventurers in England|first=George Frederick |last=Zook|jstor=2713536|publisher=The Journal of Negro History|volume=4|date=1 April 1919|pages=143–162|ref=none}}</ref>
[[File:Cape Coast Castle, Cape Coast, Ghana.JPG|thumb|left|Cape Coast Castle, capital of the [[Gold Coast (British colony)|British Gold Coast]]]]
In 1663, a new [[charter]] was obtained which also mentioned the trade in [[Atlantic slave trade|slaves]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Royal African Company|last=Davies|first=K. G. (Kenneth Gordon)|date=1999|publisher=Routledge/Thoemmes Press|isbn=041519072X|location=London|pages=41|oclc=42746420|orig-year=originally published in London by Longmans, Green & Co in 1957.}}</ref> This was the third English African Company, but it made a fresh start in the slave trade and there was only one factory of importance for it to take over from the [[East India Company]], which had leased it as a calling-place on the sea-route round the [[Cape of Good Hope|Cape]]. This was [[Fort Amsterdam, Ghana|Cormantin]], a few miles east of the Dutch station of [[Cape Coast Castle]], now in [[Ghana]]. The 1663 charter prohibits others to trade in "redwood, elephants' teeth, negroes, slaves, hides, wax, guinea grains, or other commodities of those countries".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol7/pp404-417 |title=America and West Indies: September 1672 – "Sept. 27. Westminster." |publisher=Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies; Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office |others=Digitised by the Arts and Humanities Research Council |year=1889 |editor-last=Sainsbury |editor-first=W Noel |volume=7, 1669–1674 |location=London |pages=404–417 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811192526/https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol7/pp404-417 |archive-date=2020-08-11}}</ref> 
In 1663, as a prelude to the Dutch war, [[Robert Holmes (Royal Navy officer)|Captain Holmes's]] expedition captured or destroyed all the Dutch settlements on the coast, and in 1664, [[Fort James, Ghana|Fort James]] was founded on an island about twenty miles up the [[Gambia river]], as a new centre for English trade and power. This, however, was only the beginning of a series of captures and recaptures. In the same year, [[Michiel de Ruyter|de Ruyter]] won back all the Dutch forts except Cape Coast Castle and also took Cormantin. In 1667, the [[Treaty of Breda (1667)|Treaty of Breda]] confirmed Cape Coast Castle to the English.<ref name="Clark"/><ref>{{Cite book|last=Zook |first=George Frederick|year=1919|title=The Company of Royal Adventurers Trading Into Africa|location=Lancaster, Pennsylvania|publisher=Press of the New Era Printing Company|page=20 |url=https://archive.org/details/companyofroyalad00zookrich}} also published as {{cite journal|last=Zook |first=George Frederick|year=1919|title=The Company of Royal Adventurers Trading Into Africa|journal=The Journal of Negro History|volume=4|issue=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uEc_cG58dZQC |page=155|doi=10.2307/2713534|jstor=2713534|s2cid=224831616 |ref=none|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Forts served as staging and trading stations, and the company was responsible for seizing any English ships that attempted to operate in violation of its monopoly (known as interlopers). In the "prize court", the King received half of the proceeds and the company half from the seizure of these interlopers.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Davies, Kenneth Gordon|year=1999|title=The Royal African Company|publisher=Routledge/Thoemmes Press|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=w9sH0h391c8C&pg=PA106 106]|isbn=978-0-415-19077-0}}, originally published in London by Longmans, Green in 1957.</ref>

The company fell heavily into debt in 1667, during the [[Second Anglo-Dutch War]]. For several years after that, the company maintained some desultory trade, including licensing single-trip private traders, but its biggest effort was the creation in 1668 of the '''Gambia Adventurers.'''<ref>Sometimes known as '''The Gambian Merchants' Company'''.</ref> This new company was separately subscribed and granted a ten-year licence for African trade north of the [[Bight of Benin]] with effect from 1 January 1669.<ref>{{harvnb|Zook|1919|page=[https://archive.org/details/companyofroyalad00zookrich/page/23 23]}}</ref> At the end of 1678, the licence to the Gambia Adventurers expired and its Gambian trade was merged into the company.<ref>{{harvnb|Davies|1999|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=w9sH0h391c8C&pg=PA215 215]}}</ref>

===Royal African Company of England===
The African Company was ruined by its losses and surrendered its charter in 1672, to be followed by the still more ambitious '''Royal African Company of England'''. Its new charter was broader than the old one and included the right to set up forts and factories, maintain troops, and exercise [[martial law]] in West Africa, in pursuit of trade in "gold, silver, negroes, slaves, goods, wares and merchandises whatsoever".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kitson |first=Frank |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1065120539 |title=Prince Rupert : admiral and general-at-sea |date=1999 |publisher=Constable |isbn=0-09-475800-X |location=London |page=238 |oclc=1065120539}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol7/pp404-417 |title=America and West Indies: September 1672 – "Sept. 27. Westminster." |publisher=Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies; Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office |others=Digitised by the Arts and Humanities Research Council |year=1889 |editor-last=Sainsbury |editor-first=W Noel |volume=7, 1669–1674 |location=London |pages=404–417 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811192526/https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol7/pp404-417 |archive-date=2020-08-11}}</ref> Until 1687, the company was very prosperous. It set up six forts on the Gold Coast, and another post at [[Ouidah]], farther east on the Slave Coast, which became its principal centre for trade. Cape Coast Castle was strengthened and rose to be second in importance only to the Dutch factory at [[Elmina]]. Anglo-Dutch rivalry was, however, henceforward unimportant in the region and the Dutch were not strong enough to take aggressive measures here in the [[Third Anglo-Dutch War]].<ref name="Clark"/>

===Slave trade===
{{Slavery}}
In the 1680s, the company was transporting about 5,000 enslaved people a year to markets primarily in the Caribbean across the Atlantic. Many were [[Human branding|branded]] with the letters "DoY", for its Governor, the [[James II of England|Duke of York]], who succeeded his brother on the throne in 1685, becoming King James II. Other slaves were branded with the company's initials, RAC, on their chests.<ref>[[John Micklethwait|Micklethwait, John]], and [[Adrian Wooldridge]]. ''The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea''. New York: Modern Library, 2003. {{ISBN|0-679-64249-8}}.</ref> Historian William Pettigrew has stated that this company "shipped more enslaved African women, men and children to the Americas than any other single institution during the entire period of the transatlantic slave trade", and that investors in the company were fully aware of its activities and intended to profit from this exploitation.<ref name="Pettigrew 11">{{Cite book |last=Pettigrew |first=William Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8osqAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 |title=Freedom's Debt: The Royal African Company and the Politics of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1672–1752 |date=2013 |publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=9781469611815 |page=11 |language=en |oclc=879306121}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/articles/legacy-slavery-working-party-recommendations|title=Legacy of Slavery Working Party recommendations|publisher=Jesus College, Cambridge|access-date=5 July 2020}}</ref>

Between 1672 and 1731, the Royal African Company transported 187,697 enslaved people on company-owned ships (653 voyages) to English colonies in the Americas. Of those transported, 38,497 enslaved people died en route.<ref name=VoyagesDB>{{Cite web|url=https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/database/|title=Voyages Database|website=www.slavevoyages.org|language=en|access-date=2022-03-05}}</ref> The predecessor Company of Royal Adventurers (1662–1672) transported 26,925 enslaved people on company-owned ships (104 voyages), of whom 6,620 died during the passage.<ref name=VoyagesDB/>

===Later activities and insolvency===

In 1689, the company acknowledged that it had lost its monopoly with the end of royal power in the [[Glorious Revolution]], and it ceased issuing [[letters of marque]].<ref>{{harvnb|Davies|1999|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=w9sH0h391c8C&pg=PA123 123]}}</ref> [[Edward Colston]] transferred a large segment of his original shareholding to [[William III of England|William III]] at the beginning of 1689, securing the new regime's favour.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gardiner |first=Juliet |author-link=Juliet Gardiner |date=2000 |title=The History Today Who's Who In British History |location=London |publisher=Collins & Brown Limited and Cima Books |page=192 |isbn=1-85585-876-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/06/how-prince-william-kensington-palace-home-is-linked-to-slavery|title=The Colston connection: how Prince William's Kensington Palace home is linked to slavery|work=The Guardian|first=David|last=Conn|date=6 April 2023|accessdate=6 April 2023}}</ref> To maintain the company and its infrastructure and end its monopoly, parliament passed the [[Trade with Africa Act 1697]] (9 Will. 3 c. 26).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/statutes-realm/vol7/pp393-397|title=William III, 1697-8: An Act to settle the Trade to Africa. [Chapter XXVI. Rot. Parl. 9 Gul. III. p. 5. n. 2.] &#124; British History Online|website=www.british-history.ac.uk}}</ref> Among other provisions, the Act opened the African trade to all English merchants who paid a ten per cent levy to the company on all goods exported from Africa.<ref>P.E.H. Hair & Robin Law, 'The English in West Africa to 1700', in ''The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume 1, The Origins of Empire: British Overseas Enterprise to the close of the Seventeenth Century'', ed. Nicholas Canny (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 259</ref>

From 1694 to 1700, the company was a major participant in the [[Komenda Wars]] in the port city [[Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem (Ghana parliament constituency)|Komenda]] in the Eguafo Kingdom in modern-day [[Ghana]]. The company allied with a merchant prince named [[John Cabess]] and various neighbouring African kingdoms to depose the king of Eguafo and establish a permanent fort and factory in Komenda.<ref name="Law">{{Cite journal |last=Law |first=Robin |date=2007 |title=The Komenda Wars, 1694–1700: a Revised Narrative |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0361541300009761/type/journal_article |journal=History in Africa |language=en |volume=34 |pages=133–168 |doi=10.1353/hia.2007.0010 |issn=0361-5413 |s2cid=165858500|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The English took two French forts and lost them again, after which the French destroyed Fort James. The place appears to have been soon regained and in the [[War of Spanish Succession]] to have been twice retaken by the French. In the [[Peace of Utrecht|treaty of Utrecht]] it remained English. The French wars caused considerable losses to the company.<ref name="Clark"/>

The company was unable to withstand competition on the terms imposed by the Act and in 1708 became insolvent, surviving until 1750 in a state of much reduced activity.<ref name="Clark"/> In 1709 [[Charles Davenant]] published ''Reflections upon the Constitution and Management of Trade to Africa'', in which he "reverted to his normal attitude of suspicion and outright hostility towards the Dutch."<ref name=Waddell286>Waddell, p. 286.</ref> This pamphlet advocated renewing the Royal African Company's monopoly on slave trade on the basis that the Dutch competition "necessitated the maintenance of forts, which only a joint-stock company could afford."<ref name=Waddell286 />

The company continued purchasing and transporting slaves until 1731, when it abandoned slaving in favour of [[ivory]] and [[gold]] dust.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/83277c80-67d0-3abf-b52b-bdcefa21ee10|title=Royal African Company of England|publisher=Archives Hub|access-date=6 July 2020}}</ref>

From 1668 to 1722, the Royal African Company provided gold to the [[Royal Mint|English Mint]]. Coins made with such gold are designed with an elephant below the bust of the king and/or queen. This gold also gave the coinage its name, the [[Guinea (British coin)|guinea]].<ref>{{harvnb|Davies|1999|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=w9sH0h391c8C&pg=PA181 181]}}</ref>