The Trade

The Trade
Victoria Coules
Birlinn Ltd
£9.99 (hard cover)

"The effects of the slave trade on 18th-century England were so ubiquitous as to be almost invisible. As Victoria Coules's jaunty history The Trade demonstrates, Bristol was riddled with slavery. The city made the metal-wares that first purchased the slaves; Bristol ships deposited the strong, sun-tolerant workforce at the plantations, and then transported sugar to be refined in Bristol factories. That city's gracious squares were built for slavers. Liverpool and London were still more indebted to the millions of Africans claimed by the triangular trade."

Esther Godfrey: The Telegraph