192 : The Atlantic 



naval craft and American captains and seamen learned how to 

 carry the fight into the enemies' waters. At the conclusion of the 

 wars this confidence spread also to the merchant seamen. 



We often hear or read references to the so-called "triangular trade" 

 as though there was only one such triangle and as though everyone 

 knew exactly where it lay and what was traded over it. This is very 

 misleading because there were in fact a number of different triangles 

 in use and over a period of dme the exact routes and products of each 

 triangle would vary. 



For America, the classic example and the one usually intended in 

 the references was the one that had its points or angles in New Eng- 

 land, West Africa, the West Indies. From New England, rum and 

 "trade goods" were carried to Africa and traded for slaves; the slaves 

 were carried to the West Indies and sold and some of the proceeds 

 invested in sugar and molasses; these were carried to Providence, 

 Newport, Medford, Newburyport, Boston, and converted into rum 

 which was loaded for Africa and so on round again. The trip from 

 Africa to the West Indies was known as the "Middle Passage." It was 

 the most nauseous and dangerous but also the most profitable — yield- 

 ing a profit of 200 per cent when it was well executed whereas the 

 other legs of the journey produced a mere 100 per cent. 



This triangular trade had grown up out of a simpler affair. Orig- 

 inally New England traders in colonial times thought themselves for- 

 tunate enough if they could dodge England's restrictions and the 

 French and Spanish letters of marque and the pirates, making a 

 simple voyage to the West Indies and back. Up to the end of the 

 eighteenth century the trip to Africa was simply a side trip from the 

 West Indies made to the Slave Coast and back. After 1698 the colo- 

 nists were formally admitted to the trade and the triangle developed. 



But the triangle varied; not only did the voyage begin in many 

 different ports in America, it ran at various times to various parts 

 of the African coast and it landed in the west again wherever business 

 was brisk and the trade could be completed with relative safety. This 

 might be in Cuba or Barbados or some other West Indian island but 

 it might also be as far north as an American port or as far south as 

 Brazil. 



We must remember that this was only the colonists' triangle, 

 which became the American triangle; the British had already estab- 

 lished and legalized a different triangle, Spain another and so on. 

 Besides, slavery triangles existed in many trade voyages. After all, the 



