Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/224

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entered so largely into it that, in 1698, an Act ot Parliament gave permission to all the King's subjects, whether of England or of America, to trade to Africa on payment of a certain per centage to the Company on all goods exported or imported, negro slaves being nevertheless exempted from this contribution. The advocates of free trade considered the exemption a great boon to the colonies, as the competition of the private merchant vessels had greatly reduced the prices of slaves, whereby the British negro colonies had been enabled to undersell their rivals in the general market of the world. This process seems, however, to have had a twofold effect, or to have cut both ways. The keenest partisans for the unbounded liberty of commerce felt no scruple of conscience in depriving the poor Africans, who were only guilty of having black skins and woolly hair, of their liberty, in whatever part of the world they could be found; and on the east coast of Africa, where negroes were cheaper than elsewhere, the competition of the traders of various nations raised the price of human flesh. Al-*

of trade to the English (Macph. ii. 153). The French would seem to have had a considerable trade with Senegal at a much earlier period (Macph. ii. 390). In 1637 the Dutch secured a direct commerce in negroes by taking from the Portuguese the castle of St. George del Mina, on the coast of Guinea; and, in 1642, by a special treaty, the Portuguese were permitted to hire English ships wherein to carry their negroes (Macph. ii. 420). At the peace, the result of Lord Rodney's action, England restored to France, in 1783, what she had taken from her along the coast of Africa. The Royal African Company was first incorporated in 1631. It was constantly in trouble, chiefly with the Dutch, and was repeatedly renewed with fresh privileges. As late as 1800 it received from government an annual grant of 20,000l. (Macph. iv. 501).]
 * [Footnote: claimed the coast of Guinea as their own), which allowed equal rights