A historic example of three-way trade in the North Atlantic

Triangular trade, or triangle trade, is a historical term indicating trade among three ports or regions. The trade evolved where a region had an export commodity that was required in the region from which its major imports came. Triangular trade thus provided a mechanism for rectifying trade imbalances.

The most famous triangle trade in human history was the 18th century trade among Europe, West Africa, and the West Indies and North American colonies. ¹ (alternatively: West Africa, the West Indies, and northern colonies in British North America). Of these, the sea lane west from Africa was the notorious Middle Passage; its cargo, abducted or recently purchased African slaves.²

Triangle slave trade

Main article: Atlantic slave trade

Diagram illustrating the stowage of African slaves on a British slave ship.

The trade represented a profitable enterprise for merchants. The business was risky, competitive, and severe, but enslaved Africans fetched a high price at auctions, making the trade in human cargo a lucrative business.

The first leg of the triangle was from a European port to Africa, in which ships carried supplies for sale and trade, such as copper, cloth, trinkets,slave beads, guns and ammunition. ³ When the slave ship arrived, its cargo would be sold in exchange for slaves, who were tightly packed like any other cargo to maximize profits.

On the second leg, ships made the journey of the Middle Passage from Africa to the New World. Once the slave ship reached the New World, enslaved survivors were sold for a good profit in the Caribbean or American colonies.

The ships were then prepared to get them thoroughly cleaned, drained, and loaded with export goods for a return voyage, the third leg, to their home port.⁴ From the West Indies the main export cargoes were sugar, rum, and molasses; from Virginia, commodities were tobacco and hemp. The ship then returned to Europe to complete the triangle.

New England also benefited from the trade, as many merchants were from New England, especially Rhode Island, replacing the role of Europe in the triangle. New England also made rum from the Caribbean sugar and molasses, which it shipped to Africa as well as within the New World.⁵ Yet, the 'triangle trade' as considered in relation to New England was a piecemeal operation. No New England traders are known to have completed a full sequential circuit of the triangle - historian Clifford Shipton, after years of sifting through New England shipping records, could not find a single instance of a ship completing the full triangle as described ⁶ The concept of the New England triangle trade was first suggested, inconclusively, in an 1866 book by George H. Moore, was picked up in 1872 by historian George C. Mason, and reached full consideration from a lecture in 1887 by American businessman and historian William B. Weeden. ⁷

Other triangular trades

The term "triangular trade" also refer to a variety of other trades:

• A trade pattern which evolved before the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain, the colonies of British North America, and British colonies in the Caribbean. This typically involved exporting raw resources such as fish (especially salt cod) or agricultural produce from British North American colonies to feed slaves and planters in the West Indies (also lumber); sugar and molasses from the Caribbean; and various manufactured commodities from Great Britain.⁸

• The shipment of Newfoundland salt cod and corn from Boston, Massachusetts in British vessels to southern Europe.⁹

• The "sugar triangle" whereby American ships took local produce to Cuba, then brought sugar or coffee from Cuba to St Petersburg, then bar iron and hemp back to New England.¹⁰

Double Triangle

The "Indian Ocean Triangle" or "Double Triangle" involved dhows with Arab and sometimes Somali crews, who traveled to Basra, Bombay/Mumbai and Mombassa on the outward passage and returned to Dar-es-Salaam, Karachi and Aden. The above were known as the "Six Ports" to those involved in the trade. The origins of this trade route go back to medieval times. It was still thriving in the 1960s.

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