New research by historians compiling the Register of British Slave Traders has concluded that Britain’s financial system, including the Bank of England, was deeply implicated in the transatlantic enslavement and trafficking of millions of African people over several centuries. The study reports that the extent of financial involvement is greater than has been previously acknowledged in public accounts and institutional histories.
The investigators say they have identified dozens of individuals connected to the Bank of England — including directors and founding subscribers — who were also significant investors in the trafficking of enslaved people. Those findings suggest that slave-trade profits and investments were woven into the foundations and operations of key British financial institutions.
The Bank of England, established in the late 17th century and nationalised by the government in 1946 under Clement Attlee's Labour administration, has been the subject of renewed scrutiny as the research highlights historical links between its early financiers and the slave economy. The authors of the Register of British Slave Traders characterise their work as enlarging the historical record and providing a more detailed map of commercial networks that underpinned slavery.
Scholars and institutions have in recent years increasingly re-examined the economic and social legacies of slavery, and the new register is positioned as part of that broader effort to document connections between Britain’s wealth and the transatlantic slave trade. The research is likely to prompt further investigation and public discussion about how those historical links should be understood and addressed in contemporary institutional contexts.
The Register of British Slave Traders is presented by its authors as an ongoing historical project that compiles archival evidence to identify individuals and firms involved in the trade. Its findings add to a growing body of historical work seeking to trace the financial and commercial structures that supported slavery and to clarify the scale and reach of those connections within Britain’s economic history.