Financing the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

这个项目使用一个独特的跨大西洋奴隶贸易历史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。该项目使用船舶层面的数据来分析跨大西洋奴隶贸易中的投资者行为。奴隶贸易是如何被资助的——谁，如何，结构，以及这些是如何随着时间的推移而变化的——没有被探索，部分原因是缺乏适当的数据。基于丰富的船舶级数据来源和档案记录，它将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大量详细和复杂的性质使研究人员能够分析经济范围内贸易投资的模式。宏观比较方法为这一全球业务提供了第一个全面的跨国视角。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。研究结果可以指导财政政策提高经济效率。本研究项目将收集跨大西洋奴隶贸易的船舶层面微观数据，并用它来回答有关比较风险管理做法、投资者国籍、委托代理问题、再投资模式、投资者集中、女性参与奴隶贸易以及家庭在早期现代商业中的作用等问题。该项目将以现有的公共跨大西洋奴隶贸易数据库为基础，清理原始数据库中的投资者名称，并添加新的投资者相关数据。这些数据不仅可以让pi研究对跨大西洋奴隶贸易成功至关重要的融资方面，还可以让其他研究人员研究奴隶贸易的金融方面。这项研究的结果可以回答一些问题，比如跨大西洋奴隶贸易的融资方式是否促进了现代婚姻的发展，以及它是否对当代社会的代际财富分配有任何影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

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.