Dear All,

 

I would like to invite you to the final research seminar of 2023 from the Surrey-Sussex series – Wednesday 6 December 14:30-16:00 (UK time)

 

Dr Marlous van Waijenberg (Harvard Business School) will present the paper titled “(Un)principled Agents: Monitoring Loyalty after the End of the Royal African Company Monopoly”.

 

Abstract:

The revocation of the Royal African Company's monopoly in 1698 inaugurated a transformation of the transatlantic slave trade. While the RAC’s exit from the slave trade has received scholarly attention, little is known about the company’s response to the loss of its trading privileges. Not only did the end of the company's monopoly increase competition, but the unprecedented numbers of private traders who entered the trade exacerbated the company’s principal-agent problems on the West African coast. To analyze the company’s behavior in the post-monopoly period, we exploit a series of 292 instruction letters that the RAC issued to its slave-ship captains between 1685 and 1706, coding each individual command in the letters. Our database reveals two new insights into the company’s response to its upended competitive landscape. First, the RAC showed a remarkable degree of organizational flexibility, reacting to a heightened principal-agent problem. Second, its response was facilitated by the infrastructure of the transatlantic slave trade, which gave the company a monitoring mechanism by virtue of the slave-ship captains who continually sailed to the West African coast.

 

Bio:

Marlous van Waijenburg is an Assistant Professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy Unit at Harvard Business School. Her research agenda centers on the long-term development patterns of African economies. To date, her projects have focused on material living standards, fiscal capacity building efforts, coercive labor market institutions, skill accumulation, and inequality. Recently, she added a second research line on the business history of the transatlantic slave trade, which is funded by the National Science Foundation.

 

Venue: ZOOM

Date/Time: DECEMBER 6, 14:30-16:00 (UK)

 

If you would like to join, please send me an email ([log in to unmask]) from your institutional account.

 

Thank you.

 

Best wishes,

Sorin

 

 

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