Catalogue description Accounts: Journals

Accounts relating to payments for the maintenance of the Royal African Company's various forts, settlements and factories on the west coast of Africa. These include payments for stores, provisions, livestock, guns and gunpowder; payments of wages to soldiers, surgeons, craftsmen, gunners, surveyors, ships' captains and other employees; advances on salaries, presents, charges for the auditing of accounts, and payments to various named African kings.

There are also lists of goods exchanged for slaves, gold and ivory, payments (often to named agents) for the purchase of slaves, and lists of debts owed by various named individuals. Many of the volumes begin with detailed inventories, which include the names of the slaves and local labourers employed at the various forts, together with information on armaments and stores.

Some of the accounts relate to the costs of dead or runaway slaves - occasionally (as in T 70/550) these are accompanied by brief explanations of the circumstances.