The explosive growth of the Atlantic slave trade in the second half of the seventeenth century made the international trade in Africans one of the world's largest industries. This book explores the operation of that industry in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries; focusing on the market behaviour of the Royal African Company - the largest English company engaged in the slave trade - and the sugar planters of the Caribbean; who were the trade's principal customers in English America. A richly detailed portrayal of the slave trade to English America emerges; one that shows it to have been a highly competitive and efficient transatlantic market. In revealing the existence of sophisticated and complex market behaviour in this early period of black slavery in the New World; the book adds to our understanding of the development of large-scale competitive markets; as well as to our knowledge of the efficiency of resource allocation in early English America.
#751295 in Books Cambridge University Press 2003-03-17Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.98 x .71 x 5.98l; 1.11 #File Name: 052179403X376 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Comprehensive; yet easy to understandBy AaronVery comprehensive and well written book that is easy to understand. Traditionally; centralization is seen as occuring at the national level; but as Willrich demonstrates that is not always the case. As he articulates; there began a paradigm shift in the late 1890s in Chicago from a decentralized JP system to a centralized; bureaucratic local Municipal Court system. This trend seemed to occur elsewhere as well. Overall; I'd highly recommend this book!
