From Scarlet to Gold

The history of the English Guinea Company (1618–1657) – the circumstances of its establishment in particular – has not drawn much attention from scholars during the last seventy years. Thus, this article focuses on the process leading to the foundation and chartering of the Guinea Company in November 1618, as well as on the company’s role in the history of English activity in West Africa. Using a re-discovered Chancery court case, it argues that the establishment of the company was the outcome of the convergence of two separate commercial trajectories: the development of the camwood trade in the 1610s and the gold-hunting trend that characterized the early stages of England’s overseas expansion process. This outcome, it is further argued, was a turning point in the history of English activity in West Africa, creating the platform that enabled the English to emerge as prominent players in the region in the 1670s.