Financing the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

为跨大西洋奴隶贸易提供资金

• 批准号: 2116150
• 负责人: Marlous Van Waijenburg
• 金额: $ 33万
• 依托单位: Harvard University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-08-15 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2116150&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Financing; Trans; Atlantic; Slave; Trade

This project uses a unique historical Trans-Atlantic slave trade to test an important economic theory---how the financing or lack thereof shape the trajectory of an industry. The project uses ship-level data to analyze investor behavior in the transatlantic slave trade. How the slave trade was financed---who, how, structure, and how these changed over time---have not been explored in part because of lack of appropriate data. Based on rich sources of ship-level data and archival records, it will create the first transnational investor-based dataset of the slave trade. The large detailed and sophisticated nature of these micro-level data allow the researchers to analyze economy wide patterns of investment in the trade. The macro-comparative approach provides a first comprehensive transnational lens on this global business. The project pays attention to how the trading environment on the African coast impacted investment decisions. The micro-level dataset could be used to assess long-term inter-generational wealth transfers at the individual and family level generated by the slave trade. The results of this research can guide financial policies to increase the efficiency of the economy.This research project will collect ship-level micro data on the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and use it to answer questions about comparative risk-management practices, nationality of investors, principal-agent problems, reinvestment patterns, concentration of investor, female participation in the slave trade, and the role of families in early modern commerce. The project will build on existing public Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, by cleaning investor names in the original database, and adding new investor-related data. This data will not only allow the PIs to study aspects of financing that were critical to the success of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, it will also allow other researchers to study the financial aspects of the slave trade. The results of this research could answer questions such as whether the way the trans-Atlantic slave trade was financed contributed to the development of modern fiancé and whether it had any impact on inter-generational wealth distribution in contemporary societies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个项目使用一个独特的历史跨大西洋奴隶贸易来测试一个重要的经济理论-融资或缺乏融资如何塑造一个行业的轨迹。 该项目使用船舶级数据分析跨大西洋奴隶贸易中的投资者行为。 奴隶贸易是如何获得资金的-谁，如何，结构，以及这些如何随着时间的推移而变化-没有被探索，部分原因是缺乏适当的数据。 它将以丰富的船舶数据和档案记录来源为基础，创建第一个基于跨国投资者的奴隶贸易数据集。这些微观层面数据的庞大、详细和复杂性使研究人员能够分析整个经济体的贸易投资模式。宏观比较方法为这一全球性业务提供了第一个全面的跨国透镜。该项目关注非洲海岸的贸易环境如何影响投资决策。微观层面的数据集可用于评估奴隶贸易在个人和家庭层面产生的长期代际财富转移。 这一研究项目将收集关于跨大西洋奴隶贸易的船舶一级的微观数据，并利用这些数据回答关于比较风险管理做法、投资者国籍、委托代理问题、再投资模式、投资者集中、妇女参与奴隶贸易、以及家庭在早期现代商业中的作用。该项目将以现有的跨大西洋奴隶贸易公共数据库为基础，清理原始数据库中的投资者姓名，并增加新的投资者相关数据。 这些数据不仅将使私人调查员能够研究对跨大西洋奴隶贸易的成功至关重要的筹资问题，还将使其他研究人员能够研究奴隶贸易的财务问题。 这项研究的结果可以回答诸如跨大西洋奴隶贸易的融资方式是否有助于现代未婚夫的发展，以及它是否对当代社会的代际财富分配产生任何影响等问题，这一奖项反映了基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。