Cross-cultural trade and the slave ship the Bonne Société: baskets of goods, diverse sellers, and time pressure on the African coast

Amanda Gregg and Anne Ruderman

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: The eighteenth-century French slave ship the Bonne Société traded bundles of goods in exchange for slaves in Loango. We present detailed evidence from the ship’s trading log that decomposes the goods in the bundle and identifies the European and African merchants selling captives to the ship. Prices steadily increased throughout the captain’s stay in port, and the captain increased the bundle’s price by adding more goods and adding high-priced goods. Sellers participated both as one-shot traders and as repeat traders. These results add a nuanced picture of how this destructive trade worked in practice.

JEL-codes: N77 N87 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2025-09-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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Published in Journal of Economic History, 30, September, 2025, 85(3), pp. 874 - 913. ISSN: 0022-0507

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/129101/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Cross-Cultural Trade and the Slave Ship the Bonne Société: Baskets of Goods, Diverse Sellers, and Time Pressure on the African Coast (2025)
Working Paper: Cross-cultural trade and the slave ship the Bonne Société: baskets of goods, diverse sellers, and time pressure on the African coast (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:129101

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