2.4

• Triangular trade


  Merchant ships followed a three-part journey which when being sketched out roughly makes a triangle
• Triangular trade route


  Merchant ships start in New England, carry rum to West Africa, trade rum for enslaved laborers, sail the middle passage, arrive in British West Indies and trade slaves for sugarcane, then head back to New England to trade sugarcane for rum
• The diagram of the slave ship was a reform image, as the British parliament passed the slave trade act in 1788 which limited the number of enslaved people that could be stuffed into the hull of a ship
• Mercantilism


  The dominant economic system in Europe during this time, which assumed there was only a fixed amount of wealth in the world measured in gold and silver
• Goals of mercantilism


  • Maintain a favorable balance of trade (more exports than imports)
  • Establish colonies to access raw materials and create markets for manufactured goods
• Navigation acts


  Laws requiring merchants to engage in trade with English colonies exclusively in English ships, and certain valuable trade items to pass through exclusively British ports where they were taxed
• Transatlantic trade


  • Generated massive wealth for the elites (merchants, investors, plantation owners)
  • Transformed America's seaports into thriving urban centers
  • Fueled the consumer revolution in North America, where societal status was more tied to financial success and a refined lifestyle rather than family pedigree
• The transatlantic trade created a truly global trade network fueled by the principles of mercantilism that fundamentally altered the societies in which it functioned