Slave traders also pioneered the use of insurance as a means of guaranteeing the financial value of the their commodities. It was the infamous Zong Trial of 1783, when slavers tried to claim insurance on lost cargo of humans, which exposed the toxic relationship between finance and slavery. Contemporary finance is "still riddled with regimes of dominance and exploitation at work". Read the full article here.
This article by Phillip Roscoe asserts that the transatlantic slave trade "pioneered a new kind of finance, secured on the bodies of the powerless. Today, the arcane products of high finance, targeting the poor and troubled as profit opportunities for the already-rich, still bear that deep unfairness." The slaver's banking system was based on the system of financialisation developed by Florentine banking dynasties of the 15th century which gave rise to money as we know it now. The "obscene novelty" of the slavers’ innovation was that this financial value was secured on human bodies.
Slave traders also pioneered the use of insurance as a means of guaranteeing the financial value of the their commodities. It was the infamous Zong Trial of 1783, when slavers tried to claim insurance on lost cargo of humans, which exposed the toxic relationship between finance and slavery. Contemporary finance is "still riddled with regimes of dominance and exploitation at work". Read the full article here. Twelve years after publicly endorsing a campaign to build a major memorial commemorating the victims of the transatlantic slave trade when Mayor of London, now Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been urged to provide funding to build the statue. In 2008 Johnson said it was “important that this history is never forgotten”, adding: “Hyde Park is a fitting site for a permanent memorial to the millions who lost their lives and the courageous people who fought to end the brutal transatlantic slave trade.” But no funding was forthcoming then, and the government declined to fund the Hyde Park memorial in December 2019.
Patrons of the campaign include Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Sir Keir Starmer’s race relations adviser. The campaign organisers said: “Right now, there is no major memorial in England to commemorate the victims of the transatlantic slave trade. There are millions of people who were brought over from Africa in ships and kept as slaves. Many of them built Britain, but were subjected to cruelty and forced into inhumane conditions.” To find out more, read this article. Visit the campaign website. A new £4m fundraising campaign can be found here. |
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