Introduction

This chapter questions how slave-based economic activities and their spinoffs have contributed to the economic development of Europe. Academic interest in the economic importance of slavery across history is part of a wider development in re-examining the history and meaning of slavery and its legacy in relation to European histories and identities. The complementarity of insights gained from different methods and thematic domains, however, is not the only issue that requires our immediate attention. Of course, the implications of such basic assessments are often challenged by questioning whether specific percentages should not be considered small rather than large. For Great Britain, recent estimates suggest that economic activities relating to the Atlantic slavery complex reached as much as 11% of the entire British economy by the early nineteenth century.