The English in West Africa, 1691-1699

This third volume completes Robin Law's highly acclaimed edition of original correspondence of the Royal African Company of England, relating to the period 1681-1699. The Royal African Company held a legal monopoly of English trade with West Africa, mainly for gold and slaves. The letter-books comprise correspondence received at the Company's local headquarters in West Africa, Cape Coast Castle, on the Gold Coast (modern Ghana), from its factories and agents elsewhere in the African coast. This material is exceptionally detailed in its coverage of the day-to-day operation of the RAC's trade and its interactions with local African societies. These documents, published here for the first time, comprise the most substantial body of source material on English trade in West Africa in the late seventeenth century, and are also an important source for indigenous African history.