Triangular Trade Route
This map details the route and types of goods generally carried along the Triangular Trade Route.
Wikipedia
The slave trade, as part of the Atlantic triangular trade, was probably the most historically important and profitable trade route in the world. The economic value of a triangular trade route was that a ship would make a significant profit on each leg of the journey.
The first leg - Europe to Africa. Ships transported supplies they could trade or sell such as cloth, copper, trade beads and guns and ammunition. When the ship arrived in Africa, the goods they carried were sold or bartered for slaves.
The second leg - Africa to the New World (The Middle Passage). Those slaves who survived the journey were sold and the money from the sale was used to purchase products of slave labor plantations, cotton, tobacco, sugar, molasses and rum.
The third leg - The New World to Europe. The ship returned to Europe to complete the triangle.
Pirates of the Golden Age of Piracy also prospered economically from the Atlantic trade. This was due in part to the rise in the amounts of valuable cargo being shipped over vast ocean areas, a reduced presence of European navies in certain areas and ineffective government in European overseas colonies.
~~ The Pirate Ship Whydah ~~
