The triangular trade made fortunes for British merchants and ports between 1640 and the early 1800s. By 1800, around 12 million Africans had been transported across the Atlantic - the largest forced migration in history.

The Three Legs

Britain to Africa - ships left Liverpool, Bristol or London loaded with manufactured goods (guns, gunpowder, alcohol, cloth, copper pots). These were traded with African slave-traders for captives.
The Middle Passage - up to 600 enslaved people were packed into a single ship for the 6-10 week voyage. About 1 in 7 died of disease, dehydration, suicide or violence. The famous diagram of the slave ship Brookes showed people stowed like cargo.
Return to Britain - ships brought back sugar, rum, tobacco, cotton and coffee from Caribbean plantations.

Why so profitable?

Compound profit - each leg of the trade made money, so a single voyage might triple a merchant's investment.
European demand for sugar was huge: by 1800 the average Briton ate 8kg of sugar a year, mostly grown by enslaved people.
Insurance markets developed in London (Lloyd's) to spread the risk of voyages, including the loss of enslaved people - treated as cargo for insurance purposes.

British cities that grew rich

Liverpool went from a fishing village to the largest slave-trading port in Europe. Bristol, Glasgow and London also grew rich. Some of this wealth funded the Industrial Revolution - factories, railways and grand buildings. Many of Britain's stately homes were built on slave money.

Year 8 Power & Protest

Why the Triangular Trade was so profitable