Running Head: ECONOMIC PATTER OF BOOM & BUST OF SLAVE TRADE IN THE PORTUGUESE EMPIRE

Topic: Economic Pattern of Boom & Bust in Slave Trade of Portuguese Empire

The slave trade of the Portuguese Empire involved “bringing European ships for the first time into regular contact with sub-Saharan Africa”. Otherwise, the Arab slave trade according to Peterson, involved “Arabs exporting slaves from East Africa to many countries around the Indian Ocean” (Peterson, Brian 2008). There are certain commonalities in these trades, but they still differ significantly. That is, though both were superlative industries that flourished in their empires and are somewhat interrelated, they varied in terms of their economic pattern of performance; the Portuguese during the 15th-18th century and the Arabs during the 17th and 18th century. They also differed in trading goods involved, and mechanisms of demise.

According to Bamba Gascogine, the Portuguese invaded the Cape Verde Islands in 1460. They specialized in plantation work, growing, in particular, indigo and cotton. The Portuguese slaves also worked in factories that produced cloth. Gascogine states that “The cloth is exchanged in Guinea for slaves. And the slaves are sold for cash to the slaving ships which pay regular visits to the Cape Verde Islands” (Gascogine, 2008). On the other hand, the embryonic era of Arab slavery occurred well before the eighteenth century but the major time-loop in which slavery flourished was during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. According to Owen Alik Shahada, the main trading goods between Arabia and Africa were ivory, iron and animal products. He states that “there is very little evidence in the sources to support the claim that slaving was ever a major enterprise of any significance