Slave-trade wealth was embedded in Britain’s financial system, research finds

A escala do envolvimento do sistema financeiro na escravidão é maior do que o anteriormente conhecido ou reconhecido. Composite: Guardian/Diana EjaitaView imagem em tela cheia A escala do envolvimento do sistema financeiro na escravidão é maior do que o anteriormente conhecido ou reconhecido.

The Bank of England and the British financial system were for centuries deeply involved in the enslavement and transatlantic trafficking of millions of African people, according to new research on Britain’s slavery history.

Pesquisa de historiadores que compila o Register of British Slave Traders revelou que a extensão do envolvimento do sistema financeiro na escravidão é muito maior do que se acreditava ou reconhecia antes.

The Bank of England, the central bank owned by the government since nationalisation by Clement Attlee’s Labour administration in 1946, had dozens of financiers involved in its foundation who were also significant investors in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans.

Dr Michael Bennett of the University of Sheffield, who has conducted extensive research on the Bank’s historical involvement in enslavement, has found that 24 directors were investors in the trafficking of enslaved African people.

Four were among the London elites who were founding directors of the Bank in 1694. The other 20 were in office at Threadneedle Street over the next century.

O último, Christopher Puller, era um despachante de armas para o comércio de escravos e co-proprietário de uma viagem de 1786 que traficou pessoas escravizadas do Gâmbia para Jamaica, de acordo com o registro.

Puller was a director for 11 years before he died in 1789. Nine of the 24 were also governors of the Bank.

View image in fullscreenWealth generated from the slave trade formed part of the Bank of England’s initial capital, according to Dr Michael Bennett. Photograph: Alexander Spatari/Getty ImagesBennett also researched the founding subscribers to the Bank of England, finding that at least 30 invested in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans.

À frente deles estavam o rei e a rainha da época, William III e Mary II, que detinham ações na Royal African Company. É claro, disse Bennett, que a riqueza gerada pelo tráfico de escravos formou parte do capital inicial do Banco.

An archetypal example of a Bank of England director in the register is John Rudge, the MP for Evesham. He was a director of the Bank between 1699 and 1740, and governor in 1713-15.

Rudge was also a shareholder and assistant (director) in the RAC and deputy governor of the South Sea Company.

The findings of the register add to the research carried out by historians behind the Legacies of British Slavery (LBS) archive at University College London, which documents owners of enslaved people on plantations.

Essa pesquisa descobriu que 16 ex-governadores do Banco da Inglaterra e 26 diretores tinham interesse financeiro na propriedade de pessoas escravizadas e plantações no período anterior à abolição em 1833.

The Bank itself, and the Treasury, were centrally involved in paying out £20m, the equivalent of £23bn today according to one method of calculation, in “compensation” to enslavers under the abolition legislation.

Nothing was paid to the people who had been enslaved and trafficked.

Veja a imagem em tela cheia. As protestos do Black Lives Matter em 2020 levaram vários bancos de grande porte e instituições financeiras a reconhecerem sua participação histórica na escravidão.

Photograph: pawopa3336/Getty Images/iStockphotoThe Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 prompted several high street banks and financial institutions to acknowledge their historical involvement in slavery.

Dr Nicholas Draper, who led the LBS research, was also a lead investigator for the register and he discovered many more historic slave traders who were founders of private banks and other financial organisations.

Pesquisa de Bennett, após as protestas do BLM, descobriu que o Banco da Inglaterra havia possuído 599 pessoas escravizadas em duas plantações.

An exhibition at the Bank in 2022 included the names of the enslaved people. Most of the men, women and children listed had European names such as Pierre, Catherine and Alexandre, with no information about the country from which they were taken.

O Banco também reconheceu e pediu desculpas pelos ex-governadores e diretores que tiveram envolvimento no tráfico de escravos.

Humphry Morice, a longtime director and governor from 1727-29, was also an MP and defrauded the Bank to fund his trafficking operations.

Morice was described by Prof Matthew David Mitchell, in an article published on the Bank’s website, as “the biggest London-based trafficker of enslaved human beings from Africa to the British colonies in America.” Morice was responsible for equipping about 110 ship voyages between 1704 and 1732, transporting more than 30,000 enslaved men women and children to Jamaica, Barbados, Virginia and elsewhere in America, Mitchell wrote.

While the Bank has acknowledged this history and apologised, the Treasury has not publicly done so. This is in line with the government’s position of resisting the discussion of reparations and not acknowledging culpability for the centuries of trafficking and enslaving.

Bennett’s further findings will increase the pressure on the government to do so, which is building from Caribbean and African countries.

Um porta-voz do Banco da Inglaterra disse que havia explorado em profundidade suas conexões com a escravidão em sua exposição de 2022, adicionando: “Somos gratos pela colaboração do Dr.

Em 2023, o Scott Trust, único dono do Guardian, publicou pesquisas que mostram que o fundador do Manchester Guardian e seus apoiadores lucraram com a escravidão de africanos na Jamaica e nos US.

In response, the Scott Trust launched the Cotton Capital series and the Legacies of Enslavement programme, a 10-year restorative justice initiative.

Em números

• De Bennett, após as protestas do BLM, descobriu que o Banco da Inglaterra havia possuído 599 pessoas escravizadas em duas plantações