The Portuguese opened up the sea routes to West Africa at the end of the 15th century AD. By the 1560s English privateers were there, seeking gold and ivory. In 1562-3, Sir John Hawkins (1532-95) carried his first cargo of slaves (exchanged for English manufactured goods) to the Spanish West Indies. There he bartered them for pearls, hides and sugar. This was the start of a three-cornered trade that was to last for more than 300 years and make immense fortunes.

Slave trading had been run by Africans and Arab traders, but the involvement of Europeans, led to an explosion in the size of the trade. The 17th century saw a huge increase in the numbers of English traders, responding to demand for labour from their own colonies in the West Indies. Larger and better ships carried about 75,000 Africans to the Caribbean in the course of the17th century.

From about 1660-1700 sugar and tobacco production flourished in the West Indian plantations and supplied a growing demand for the products in 18th-century English society. The slave trade made Liverpool rich and Bristol became the largest and wealthiest city after London in the late 17th and 18th centuries on the profits from slaves and the new commodities.