4. The Royal Africa Company prospered between the Anglo-Dutch Wars
In the 17th century, as Europe convulsed in a series of religious and dynastic wars, trade with the colonies became even more important. Ships carrying cargoes of gold, silver, spices, sugar, and other desired products became the frequent targets of pirates, privateers, and enemy fleets. Ships carrying slaves, for the most part, did not (though a few did). The Royal Africa Company, by the 1680s, carried approximately 5,000 Africans, purchased as slaves, to the colonies in the Caribbean and North America per year. They were not only treated as livestock cargo, they were branded. Most were branded, men, women, and children, with the initials RAC. A significant number were branded instead with the letters DoY, which represented the Duke of York, who later became King James II and VII of England and Scotland.
Under the Royal Africa Company and its successor, the Royal Africa Company of England, the company transported over 210,000 Africans from its factories to the colonies. While most of them went to the labor-hungry sugar plantations of the Caribbean, some did arrive in North America. Changes in the British government (Glorious Revolution) and the wars with the Dutch weakened the company, and in 1731 it abandoned the transatlantic slave trade, preferring to concentrate on exploiting gold and ivory from Africa. The company played a major role in transferring the bulk of the slave trade to British merchants and shippers, effectively helping to end the Dutch Golden Age. For the rest of the 18th century, Great Britain dominated the transatlantic slave trade and its triangular trade routes.