ABSTRACT
In the debate concerning the transatlantic slave trade the focus has mainly been on the triangular trade. However, slave trade was carried out on other voyages such as the small shipping in the Caribbean and the return voyages, the bilateral voyages between Europe and West Africa. These voyages formed a link in the whole “product chain” of the transatlantic slave trade. This article concentrates on the Dutch return voyages on which hardly any research has been done and gives an answer to questions as: how this trade took place, in what quantities, and what the financial importance for the traders was. The analysis of the ships’ administrations of thirty-eight return voyages of the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie (MCC) provides insight into these questions.
