Interesting, thanks. That seems like compelling evidence that the slave populations declined after abolition of the trade.
Although palm oil exports from Africa increased, their economic value was still far below that of the slave trade
By contrast, the slave-based sugar economy at its peak had generated several multiples of this figure.
I’m not sure Claude is doing the right comparison here. I think the fair comparison with the palm oil exports is the direct value of the slave trade, not the whole slave-based economy. Although, as you point out, the slave-based economy may have suffered somewhat from the abolition, so we might want to add a bit on top of the direct value of the slave trade for a fair counterfactual comparison.
Interesting, thanks. That seems like compelling evidence that the slave populations declined after abolition of the trade.
I’m not sure Claude is doing the right comparison here. I think the fair comparison with the palm oil exports is the direct value of the slave trade, not the whole slave-based economy. Although, as you point out, the slave-based economy may have suffered somewhat from the abolition, so we might want to add a bit on top of the direct value of the slave trade for a fair counterfactual comparison.