Economic Growth and the Ending of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

This watershed study is the first to consider in concrete terms the consequences of Britain's abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. Why did Britain pull out of the slave trade just when it was becoming important for the world economy and the demand for labor around the world was high? Caught between the incentives offered by the world economy for continuing trade at full tilt and the ideological and political pressures from its domestic abolitionist movement, Britain chose to withdraw, believing, in part, that freed slaves would work for low pay which in turn would lead to greater and cheaper products. In a provocative new thesis, historian David Eltis here contends that this move did not bolster the British economy; rather, it vastly hindered economic expansion as the empire's control of the slave trade and its great reliance on slave labor had played a major role in its rise to world economic dominance. Thus, for sixty years after Britain pulled out, the slave economies of Africa and the Americas flourished and these powers became the dominant exporters in many markets formerly controlled by Britain. Addressing still-volatile issues arising from the clash between economic and ideological goals, this global study illustrates how British abolitionism changed the tide of economic and human history on three continents.

Business & Money

Eltis, David

Economics

Oxford University Press

This watershed study is the first to consider in concrete terms the consequences of Britain's abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. Why did Britain pull out of the slave trade just when it was becoming important for the world economy and the demand for labor around the world was high? Caught between the incentives offered by the world economy for continuing trade at full tilt and the ideological and political pressures from its domestic abolitionist movement, Britain chose to withdraw, believing, in part, that freed slaves would work for low pay which in turn would lead to greater and cheaper products. In a provocative new thesis, historian David Eltis here contends that this move did not bolster the British economy; rather, it vastly hindered economic expansion as the empire's control of the slave trade and its great reliance on slave labor had played a major role in its rise to world economic dominance. Thus, for sixty years after Britain pulled out, the slave economies of Africa and the Americas flourished and these powers became the dominant exporters in many markets formerly controlled by Britain. Addressing still-volatile issues arising from the clash between economic and ideological goals, this global study illustrates how British abolitionism changed the tide of economic and human history on three continents.

A monumental work, decades in the making: the first atlas to illustrate the entire scope of the transatlantic slave trade Between 1501 and 1867, the transatlantic slave trade claimed an estimated 12.5 million Africans and involved almost every country with an Atlantic coastline. In this extraordinary book, two leading historians have created the first comprehensive, up-to-date atlas on this 350-year history of kidnapping and coercion. It features nearly 200 maps, especially created for the volume, that explore every detail of the African slave traffic to the New World. The atlas is based on an online database (www.slavevoyages.org) with records on nearly 35,000 slaving voyages—roughly 80 percent of all such voyages ever made. Using maps, David Eltis and David Richardson show which nations participated in the slave trade, where the ships involved were outfitted, where the captives boarded ship, and where they were landed in the Americas, as well as the experience of the transatlantic voyage and the geographic dimensions of the eventual abolition of the traffic. Accompanying the maps are illustrations and contemporary literary selections, including poems, letters, and diary entries, intended to enhance readers’ understanding of the human story underlying the trade from its inception to its end.
This groundbreaking work provides the fullest possible picture of the extent and inhumanity of one of the largest forced migrations in history.

Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History)

History

Richardson, David

World

Yale University Press

The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas

Exploring the paradox of the concurrent development of slavery and freedom in the European domains, The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas provides a fresh interpretation of the development of the English Atlantic slave system. The book outlines a major African role in the evolution of the Atlantic societies before the nineteenth century and argues that the transatlantic slave trade was a result of African strength rather than African weakness. It also addresses changing patterns of group identity to account for the racial basis of slavery in the early modern Atlantic World.

Cambridge University Press

Africa

David Eltis's study represents a new twist in the already complicated debate on military change in the early modern period. Previous writers have, for the most part, defined a "military revolution" focused on the 17th or even early 18th centuries. Eltis suggests that key developments in training, organization, tactics and siege warfare occurred in the 16th century and, taken together, these innovations constitute a military revolution, changing the face of war. In England, these changes came later than in the rest of Europe and in Ireland, later still. English writers, in their anxiety to spur their countrymen to adopt the new methods, produced some of the most useful manuals of 16th-century Europe. These, together with Italian, Spanish, French and German texts form the main basis of this study, allowing the ideas of contemporaries to be set alongside accounts of actual military conditions in explaining one of the turning points of world military development.

The Military Revolution in Sixteenth-Century Europe

Barnes&Noble

Historians and other scholars with a special interest in migration explore the movement of people in many parts of the world during the modern era, since about 1500, emphasizing the degree of freedom underlying their movement. Most look at particular migrations, but more general topics include changing laws and regulations their impact on migration, and the epidemiology of migration. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Coerced and Free Migration: Global Perspectives (The Making of Modern Freedom)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Stanford University Press

Atlantic Cataclysm: Rethinking the Atlantic Slave Trades

This ground-breaking study represents a new twist in the already complicated debate on military change in the early modern period. Previous writers have for the most part defined a 'military revolution' focused on the seventeenth or even early eighteenth centuries. Eltis suggests that key developments in training, organization, tactics and siege warfare occurred in the sixteenth century and, taken together, these innovations constitute a military revolution, changing the face of war. In England, these changes came later than in the rest of Europe, and in Ireland later still. English writers, in their anxiety to spur their countrymen to adopt the new methods, produced some of the most useful manuals of sixteenth-century Europe. These, together with Italian, Spanish, French and German texts, form the main basis of David Eltis's study, allowing the ideas of contemporaries to be set alongside accounts of actual military conditions in explaining one of the turning points of world military development.

The Military Revolution of Sixteenth Century Europe (International Library of Historical Studies, 3)

Military

I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Eltis, David. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Eltis, David

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Eltis, David. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Economic Growth and the Ending of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Economic Growth and the Ending of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History)

Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History)

The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas

The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas

The Military Revolution in Sixteenth-Century Europe

Coerced and Free Migration: Global Perspectives (The Making of Modern Freedom)

Atlantic Cataclysm: Rethinking the Atlantic Slave Trades

The Military Revolution of Sixteenth Century Europe (International Library of Historical Studies, 3)