http://www.nps.gov/history/ethnography/ ... textsC.htmThe slave trade was greatly encouraged by the low cost of slaves. Even though the price of slaves rose three- or four-fold during the 18th century, many Europeans were convinced that it was “cheaper to buy than to breed.” Between the 16th and mid-18th centuries, it was cheaper to import a slave from Africa than to raise a child to the age of 14. During the late 17th century, merchants in the Senegambia region of West Africa paid as little as one pound sterling for young males, which they sold to European traders for the equivalent of three-and-a-half pounds sterling, or 11 muskets, 31 gallons of brandy, or 93 pounds of wrought iron. Initially, many slaves were acquired from regions within fifty or a hundred miles of the West African coast. During the 18th century, however, rising prices led slavers to search for captives in interior regions, 500 to 1,000 miles inland (Mintz, Stephen 2003b).
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