Slavery, Family, and Gentry Capitalism in the British Atlantic

Abstract

From the mid-seventeenth century to the 1830s, successful gentry capitalists created an extensive business empire centered on slavery in the West Indies, but inter-linked with North America, Africa, and Europe. S. D. Smith examines the formation of this British Atlantic World from the perspective of Yorkshire aristocratic families who invested in the West Indies. At the heart of the book lies a case study of the plantation-owning Lascelles and the commercial and cultural network they created with their associates. The Lascelles exhibited high levels of business innovation and were accomplished risk-takers, overcoming daunting obstacles to make fortunes out of the New World. Dr Smith shows how the family raised themselves first to super-merchant status and then to aristocratic pre-eminence. He also explores the tragic consequences for enslaved Africans with chapters devoted to the slave populations and interracial relations. This widely researched book sheds new light on the networks and the culture of imperialism.

Keeping “the wheel in motion”: Trans-Atlantic Credit Terms, Slave Prices, and the Geography of Slavery in the British Americas, 1755–1807

“…28 From 1801 until 1807, slave traders likewise had "little difficulty obtaining credit," thanks to slave prices being driven up by planters fearful of the imminent abolition of the trade (Behrendt 2001 rising in line with domestic demand for tropical staples during the "silver age of sugar" (Pares 1956), planters were eager to expand their holdings and establish new estates, especially in the recently acquired Windward Isles (Quintanilla 2004;Murdoch 1984;Niddrie 1966). Planters in uncultivated lands there took out mortgages from London banks to purchase property and an enslaved workforce, hoping to repay the principal with the proceeds from the first crop (Smith 2006). In the one to two years it took to make their first remittances, however, the planters borrowed further using the same mortgaged assets as collateral.…”

“…30 Twelve months later, Jamaica's slave trade had almost doubled in volume (Figure 2). Meanwhile, shipments of captives to Barbados and Virginia almost disappeared, and those to the Windward Islands halved, all areas that had been sites of speculation prior to the crisis (Smith 2006;Price 1980). crops" which would "keep the credit of its bills better than heretofore."…”

Introduction

“…209 Most notably the Lascelles, whose firm of Lascelles and Maxwell prospered for decades by trading in sugar and slaves and making loans to planters, acquired 27,000 acres through purchase and foreclosure in Barbados, Jamaica, Grenada and Tobago between 1773 and 1787. 210 Their connections and business acuity enabled West Indian merchants and financiers to exercise extensive influence in the City. Between 1780 and 1807 at least seven served as directors of the East India Company, 211 seven others were directors of the Royal Exchange Assurance Company, at least three more served in a similar capacity at the South Sea Company, two were commissioners of the Hudson's Bay Company and one became a deputy governor of the Levant Company.…”

A Glasgow-West India Merchant House and the Imperial Dividend, 1779–1867

“…during the years leading up to Emancipation in 1834'. 136 Indeed, there is no comparative sample of Glasgow-West India loans. This study identifies Leitch & Smith and their successors as significant merchant financiers in Grenada, with loans of over £84,000 in both short-and long-term credit to individual planters.…”