New research reveals the Bank of England’s deep historical ties to the transatlantic slave trade, with dozens of its founding directors and investors directly linked to the financing of African enslavement. Historians compiling the Register of British Slave Traders have uncovered evidence showing the British financial system’s extensive, long-standing role in the trafficking of millions. The findings suggest the scale of involvement was far greater than previously documented or recognized. The bank, now government-owned, traces its origins to figures with substantial investments in the brutal trade.
Dozens of Bank of England directors and founding subscribers invested in trafficking of enslaved AfricansThe Bank of England and the British financial system were for centuries deeply involved in the enslavement and transatlantic trafficking of millions of African people, according to new research on Britain’s slavery history.Research by historians compiling the Register of British Slave Traders has found that the scale of the financial system’s involvement in enslavement is greater than previously known or acknowledged. The Bank of England, the central bank owned by the government since nationalisation by Clement Attlee’s Labour administration in 1946, had dozens of financiers involved in its foundation who were also significant investors in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans. Continue reading...
