Silver & SailsTrade goods of 1715
In 1715 a merchant ship might carry salt cod to the sugar islands, sugar and molasses north, and cloth, rum and guns to West Africa. Silver & Sails has 16 real cargoes. Here is where each one came from, who made it, who bought it, and the laws and people behind it.
Salt
Raked by hand from sunny salt pans and shipped north to preserve the cod and meat the Atlantic world lived on.
Read the full history ⟶Flour
Wheat flour and ship’s biscuit from Pennsylvania and New York, shipped in barrels to the hungry sugar islands.
Read the full history ⟶Salt Cod
New England’s most valuable export: the best fish went to Spain and Portugal, the worst to feed enslaved people in the Caribbean.
Read the full history ⟶Lumber
Boards, shingles and barrel staves from the northern forests, shipped south to the islands that had cut down their own trees.
Read the full history ⟶Molasses
The cheap sugar syrup that New England distilled into rum, bought mostly from the French islands.
Read the full history ⟶Sugar
Britain’s most valuable import in the 1700s, grown by enslaved Africans on the Caribbean islands.
Read the full history ⟶Rum
A strong spirit made from sugar’s leftovers, born on Barbados and tied to the slave trade, the navy and pirate legend.
Read the full history ⟶Tobacco
A plant first grown by Indigenous Americans, farmed by enslaved Africans in Virginia and Maryland, and fought over by Cuba’s growers.
Read the full history ⟶Cacao
The seeds of chocolate, grown in Venezuela largely by enslaved Africans and smuggled in huge amounts through Dutch Curaçao.
Read the full history ⟶Logwood
A dyewood cut by English “Baymen” on Spanish land, and the reason Belize began.
Read the full history ⟶Hides and deerskins
Deerskins from Native hunters in Carolina and cattle hides from the Spanish islands, shipped to Europe to become leather.
Read the full history ⟶Cloth and Tools
Woollens, linens, Indian cottons and ironware: Europe’s exports to the colonies, and the main goods traded for enslaved people in West Africa.
Read the full history ⟶Brandy and Wine
Madeira wine for the colonies, port for Britain, and French brandy that was taxed, smuggled and traded on the West African coast.
Read the full history ⟶Muskets and Powder
Cheap export muskets and barrels of powder, bought by African states, Native nations, the Miskito and colonists alike.
Read the full history ⟶Rice
Carolina’s new cash crop, grown in swamp fields by enslaved Africans and shipped by way of Britain.
Read the full history ⟶Ivory
Elephant tusks from West and Central Africa, supplied by African hunters and traders and carved into combs and knife handles in Europe.
Read the full history ⟶