artly for money. Estimating 2,400 pounds of
sugar as equal to seventeen pounds it appears that the average price
for these Negroes was a little over sixteen pounds per head.[35] This
comparatively low price is to be accounted for by the fact that the
women and children are averaged with the men, who sold for a higher
price. These figures show therefore that the company's factors were
selling adult slaves at about seventeen pounds each, as the company
had publicly declared that it would do.

In 1667 the company asserted that it had furnished the plantations
with about 6,000 slaves each year. This statement is to be doubted
since the Anglo-Dutch war had practically disrupted the company's
entire trade on the African coast. On the other hand, there is reason
to think that the need for slaves in Barbadoes was not so pressing as
might be inferred from the statements of the planters.[36] They
naturally insisted on a large supply of slaves in order to keep the
prices as low as possible. There seems no doubt, however, that the
islanders were able to obtain more Negroes than they could pay for and
were therefore hopelessly in debt to the company. On July 9, 1668,
Governor Willoughby estimated the total population of Barbadoes at
60,000, of which 40,000 were slaves.[37] Indeed some merchants
declared that the slaves outnumbered the white men twenty to one.[38]

As compared to its trade with Barbadoes and Jamaica the company's
trade in slaves to the Leeward Islands was insignificant. The company
located at Nevis a factor who reported to the agents in Barbadoes[39]
and also at Antigua and Surinam where Governor Byam acted as
agent.[40] In Surinam, the lack of slaves was attributed to the
prominent men of Barbadoes who were supposed to be influential with
the Royal Company.[41] Later, during the Anglo-Dutch war, one of the
company's ships in attempting to go to Surinam with Negroes, was
captured by the Dutch.[42]

After the war the company seems to have neglected the islands
altogether. Upon one occasion the planters of Antigua pleaded
unsuccessfully to have Negroes furnished to them on credit.[43] At
another time they asserted that the company treated them much worse
than it did the planters of Barbadoes because the latter were able to
use their influence with the company to divert the supply of slaves to
Barbadoes. Their condition, they declared, seemed all the more bitter
when they considered the thriving trade in Negroes whic