Considerations on the present peace, as far as it is relative to the colonies, and the African trade

by Robert Vaughan; Thomas Carney

“Page 554. And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that no person shall be capable of being chosen, or acting as a committee-man above three years successively.”

By the foregoing clauses it was most certainly intended that the election for committee-men should be free and uninfluenced, but that has not happened; for there was great interest made by those who were chosen committee-men the first year after the act passed, for establishing the company of merchants trading to Africa. After which, the several tradesmen employed by the African committee in London, and by their friends in Bristol and Liverpool, took up their freedom of the new company, in order to vote for committee-men; so that, at the expiration of the first year, when the committee-men that had been chosen for London, Bristol and Liverpool for the preceding year, could act no longer, then, or at the expiration of the three years (which we cannot now take upon us to say) three new committee-men were chosen instead of three that went out, which nine committee-men so chosen, continued to act for three years, when the three other were again elected; by which means there are twelve persons who take it by rotation alternatively, to be of the committee or not, as they agree among themselves; on which account it is a folly for any person, not being one of the twelve, to attempt getting elected a committee-man for either London, Bristol, or Liverpool; there having been as great interest made against such persons who have offered themselves, as hath happened on some occasions preceding the election of a member of parliament; therefore we have the greatest reason to believe, there is not any person who will again attempt to stand a candidate in opposition to one of the twelve persons who have had the direction and management so long, of which number those gentlemen are, we have mentioned in the account of the merchandize supplied by the committee-men, page 51.

The several articles of merchandize purchased in Holland, are paid for in money, or bills of exchange, which is very disadvantageous to this country; and such goods may serve to make an assortment with those paid for by the government, and sent to Africa for the support of the forts there; which has been proved to have been the case before, consequently may be so again. That fact being admitted, and indeed it would be folly to think otherwise; what chance can any private traders have, when the committee’s servants have such a glaring emolument, besides so many other advantages over them? Were there any reason to ground the least supposition, that all things in Africa are carried on upon the square, and no methods practiced by the officers that command the several forts to monopolize the trade; can any one think even in such case, that private merchants, or matters of ships, who are obliged to pay customs, house and warehouse rents, servants, and all sorts of other contingent expences, can possibly carry on a trade in any degree of equality with those persons, who are, as hath been before observed, exonerated from every article of expence?

The committee’s servants having such advantages, can it be supposed any private trader can stand any chance in trade with them, as said trader must settle in a negroe town, in a mud house covered with thatch, there being no other sort of dwelling to be got, without carrying tradesmen of all sorts from Europe to build it, which would be attended with too great an expence and risk for any private adventure to undertake? Therefore, on account of the frequent fires that happen in negroe towns, persons well acquainted with them, would not insure any property lodged therein for twenty-five per cent. annually. That alone is sufficient to deter any one from settling, except some of the old or new companies discarded servants, whose narrow circumstances discourage them from returning to Europe, not knowing what else to do with themselves; for there has not one of the young men from Bristol or Liverpool, &c. that were to have been intrusted with cargoes by their relations and friends, to go and settle under the protection of the British forts in Africa, has yet made a single attempt to do it, though that was made use of as an argument, and enforced with great energy by gentlemen, to obtain a dissolution of the late royal African company (and in which they succeeded). But no such boasted consequence has taken place, because the people of those places were not to be lulled on to adventure their property, under the notion of a free trade. They very well knew what hardships must attend those who were necessitated to settle in a negroe town, from a knowledge, as soon as they did, they must become subservient in a manner, and brother citizens with the negroes. It is a joke to think they can make use of the forts to lodge and defend their properties in; for the very persons who (we should imagine) by the spirit and intention of the act of parliament, ought to be their defenders, will take every measure, in proportion as they rival them, and curtail their trade, to exercise their power over the natives, to prevent the private trader succeeding with them, which will create disputes between the officers commanding the forts and the towns people under them, in which every private trader must bear a part; for no man can settle in a negroe town without paying his freedom, and entering into a league to become a native, and partake of that township’s misfortunes, advantages and customs. Is there any difference then between a European trader and an African? None! one is a native black Negroe, and the other is become a white one: so that whenever a dispute happens between the natives and the officers aforesaid, the indenizened European will be under the compulsive necessity of joining his black fellow townsmen against his countrymen and fortress, which the British nation intended for his preservation in time of danger, and last resort.

From what we have before advanced, our readers may naturally wonder if the trade to Africa, where the forts are situated, is carried on so much to the disadvantage of the British traders, and so greatly for the benefit of the officers of the African committee, why said traders do not continue their complaints, in order to have their grievances redressed. We conjecture one reason for their not doing so, is the difficulties they had to encounter when they presented their former complaint to obtain satisfaction, which arose from the opposition raised against them by the African committee, who refused to give their officers such orders, as would have obliged them to put in execution the lords of trade and plantations opinion. Being defeated in their first attempt, it is natural to suppose they were fearful of applying again to the legislative power, lest the methods pursued to carry on that valuable branch of commerce, since it has been under the management of the African committee, should be maturely and attentively enquired into; for there has been, and is now, as much reason for such examination, as there was in the year 1753, 1755, 1756 and 1758. But then it began to become too serious; and if continued fairly, might have been a means of putting the forts upon a new and respectable establishment, such as would have enabled the officers commanding them, to have secured the natives under their protection from the danger they may be in from enemies of their own colour, and the arbitrary injustice often imposed upon them by the officers of our good friends and allies. The Dutch residing in Africa, to have prevented said Dutch officers, by their superior power, from wresting violently and unfairly any part of the territories belonging to the British forts, or detaining and imprisoning any of the natives living under their protection, both which they have illegally done since the decline of the late company’s power, and confined a number of them, notwithstanding all remonstrances made by the British officers, till that noble and gallant commander, the present honourable lord How arrived in his majesty’s ship Glory, with the Swan sloop under his command, upon the Gold Coast, in the year 1751, who soon after his arrival, did examine with the greatest attention, all the original papers relative to the cause of the dispute that happened between the officers of the English and Dutch companies. After such examination, he demanded from the Dutch general the prisoners he had confined during said dispute in the castle of St. George’s D. Elmina, the principal Dutch fort upon the coast of Africa in that noble manner which it has everbeen the invariable rule of that judicious, worthy, and great commander to pursue in the service of his country[20].

It is to be hoped that the British forts will be put upon such an establishment, that the officers commanding them will be sufficiently empowered to hinder the Dutch officers from exercising that arbitrary power they have done, and continued to do, over the Portugueze upon the Gold Coast of Africa, to prevent their trading at the British settlements, in open violation of a treaty concluded between the English and Dutch principal officers in Africa, and ratified by both companies in Europe[21].

If the African committee has not represented that affair in a true light to the government, we are surprized they have neglected it, as it is a very valuable commerce now wholly engrossed by the Dutch; who will not suffer the master or supercargo of any Portugueze vessel to trade at the English forts, or with the British subjects, notwithstanding the beforementioned treaty, which, perhaps, might be deemed obsolete, since the dissolution of the late company. If that should be the case, then, in our humble opinion, it ought to be renewed, as well as many other regulations made between the English and Dutch in Africa.

If the British officers should once again obtain that influence and power so essentially necessary for them to have, in order to open the trading roads to the most distant inland countries of Africa, so long stopped, which would be of immense advantage to this country, and, at the same time, to prevent the subjects of France hereafter carrying to their colonies the most valuable Negroes, as we have observed they did before the war, and which will in a great measure be proved, by the extracts of the following letters from the captains Strange and Wyndham, commanders of two of his majesty’s ships war, dated Africa, 20th Sept. 1740, and 30th Aug. 1742.