Royal African Company
The Royal African Company, a London-based trading company, had control over all trade between countries in Britain and Africa from 1672 to 1698. At this time, only ships owned by the Royal African Company could trade for anything, including slaves. Slaves were an increasingly important commodity at the time, since the British colonisation of the Caribbean and the Americas in the 17th century which necessitated cheap labour to work on Sugar, Rum, Tobacco and Cotton Plantations.