The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census

2. Distribution in Space: The Hispanic Trade

CHAPTER 2 DISTRIBUTION IN SPACE: THE HISPANIC TRADE The Hispanic nations of the Iberian peninsula were the first to begin the slave trade, and the last to quit. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Spanish and Portuguese carried the rudimentary institutions of the South Atlantic System from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Islands, then to Santo Domingo and Brazil. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Dutch, English, and French dominated the slave trade, but, in the nineteenth century, Brazil and Cuba accounted for the vast majority of slaves imported-and by that time the northern powers had made their own slave trade effectively illegal. The long duration of this trade to Brazil and Spanish America greatly complicates the problem of estimating the total imports, and the earliest phases provide very uncertain evidence. A point of departure is nevertheless available in Noel Deerr's set of estimates. They are the only detailed, overall estimates anywhere in the historical literature; a.nd, though some are simply guesses, most are calculated estimates, and the basis of the calculation is explained. In addition, Deerr used most of the available methods for calculating the size of the trade from diverse evidence. The most obvious and direct kind of evidence is a systematic record of the slaves imported through a particular port or into a given colony over a period of years. Such evidence exists, but 15 16 THE A'ILANTIC SLAVE TRADE only for a small fraction of the total slave trade. Equivalent direct evidence of exports from Africa is still more rare. Shipping records are still another form of direct evidence. Many European and American ports preserved long series of records covering the destinations and cargoes of their ships. Still other European records are concerned with the number of slaves authorized or contracted for in order to supply the colonies. Where direct evidence is missing or faulty, several forms of indirect evidence are available. The slave population of an American colony is clearly related to the number of slaves imported in the past. Population estimates and even genuine census data are usually available in the literature, at least for the last two centuries of the slave trade. If they are carefully used, they can be of great value. The number of slaves imported was also closely related to economic productivity. Especially in colonies that practiced sugar monoculture, annual time-series of sugar production can be used to measure the probable level of the slave trade. Similar indirect evidence of slaves exported from Africa is less common, but it is at least theoretically possible to construct estimates of exports from Africa by reference to the European exports to Africa, where the value of these exports, the price of slaves, and the value of non-slave exports from Africa are all known. The most valuable records, whether direct or indirect, are time-series over a period of years, since the slave trade was always subject to great annual variation. Although the literature contains a very large number of short-term records, covering periods from a few months to a few years, this short-term evidence has only a limited value. Unless it can be carefully controlled in the light of other qualitative evidence, it may be more misleading than otherwise. Alongside the actual records (which claim, at least, to be based on a genuine count) a number of contemporaneous estimates are also available. Ships' captains, travellers, officials and supercargoes stationed in Africa, or merchants generally knowl- The Hispanic Trade 17 edgeable about the state of the tradle would often produce a figure indicating the size of the trade they knew about. As quantitative evidence, the value of these opinions is extremely uneven. In some instances, an estimate--say, of the annual average export of slaves from a particular Mrican port-was based on actual records that are now lost. In another case, an equivalent figure could be nothing but a shot in the dark. The men-onthe -spot, furthermore, tended to inflate the export figures from their own part of Africa. They looked to future prospects rather than present reality, or they hoped to persuade the home authorities to send more trade goods, more personnel, or a bigger defense force. When contemporaneous estimates deal with larger aggregates, such as the whole British or French slave trade of a particular period, the same caution applies. Some officials had records that no longer exist...