Royal African Company

Uncommon card · No. 145093

The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English trading company established in 1660 by the House of Stuart and City of London merchants to trade along the West African coast. It was overseen by the Duke of York, the brother of Charles II of England; the RAC was founded after Charles II ascended to the English throne in the 1660 Stuart Restoration, and he granted it a monopoly on all English trade with Africa. While the company's original purpose was to trade for gold in the Gambia River, as Prince Rupert of the Rhine had identified gold deposits in the region during the Interregnum, the RAC quickly considered enslaved humans as commodity and began trading in them. It shipped approximately 100,000 African slaves to the Americas (primarily the Caribbean). Historians have estimated that the RAC shipped more enslaved Africans to the Americas during the Atlantic slave trade than any other company. The RAC also dealt in commodities such as ivory that were primarily sourced from the Gold Coast...

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