Intercultural Exchange and the Transformation of the Loango Merchant Community, 1732–97

In recent years significant advances have been made in the understanding of the transatlantic slave trade.  Databases have been compiled, trade routes have been traced, diasporas have been explored, and European merchant communities examined.  Still, the worlds of African merchants remain obscured by the passing of time and the availability of fragmented source materials.  This problem presents a question: how do we use the data available to us to get a better picture of the role of African merchants in the transatlantic slave trade?  By focusing on the Middleburg Commercial Company records of trade on the Loango Coast, this paper begins to answer this question through the examination of slave trading transactions at the ports of Loango, Cabinda, and Malembo.  These records provide the intricate details of intercultural exchange over a sixty-five year period providing excellent data on evolving trading practices.  Through a comparison with other slave trading regions, this paper will show that varying political systems, economic arrangements, and settlement patterns resulted in varying structure of trade negotiations throughout Africa, emphasizing the importance of local factors in trade conventions.