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Originally Posted by PClemente
Hi,
Interesting piece you have there. Initially thinking an early 19th century trade gun and some research leads me to believe it belonged to the "Company of Merchants Trading to Africa". The company used the elephant with castle mark to show ownership of its guns, and was heavily involved in the African slave trade. The original company, called the Royal African Company, was founded in the late 1600's. To quote a response in regards to a similar musket in a post several years ago, " This company had a monopoly in the slave trade, but eventually succumbed to the free trade movement which saw the charter of the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa in 1750. The new company, composed of nearly 400 Liverpool, London, and Bristol merchants, and taking advantage of tribal wars, supplied muskets to local kings and paramount rulers upon whom the slavers depended on the flow of slaves from the inner continent to the trading forts established in Gambia and Senegal. The company, along with some other chartered companies, continued its activity in the slave trade and expanded into the trade for gold and ivory as well as slaves. As mentioned previously, muskets, gunpowder and lead were furnished to powerful local rulers in exchange for slaves, but were also used to arm local white or native contingents around the company forts. Textiles, purchased by the company from the HEI company were also used as trade goods. The Company of Merchants trading to Africa ended its operations in the slave trade in 1821.
Depending on the style of the musket in question, it could have been made between 1750 and 1821. The majority seem to have been quite cheaply made, but were patterned after the government's Brown Bess, though not of sufficeint quality to pass inspection for government service. Calibres were nominally .68 to .70, similar to fusils made for the Army. In fact, Galton, who supplied huge numbers of trade muskets for the company, produced muskets and fusils for the British Army."
Hope this leads you in the right direction!
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Hi Clemente
Many thanks ! Yours explanations are very good & exact !
With your help and using "Company of Merchants Trading to Africa". for my google research I just found exactly the same example ( See the following pictures from
http://www.brlsi.org/museum-collecti...eaponry/17523#
"The round iron barrel (93.5cm) has Birmingham proof marks and the top of the breech engraved with the emblem of the Royal African Company. The wooden full stock has brass furniture, and the flintlock mechanism has superfluous Ordnance markings consisting of a Crown and the word "Tower". The makers initials C.W.J. are stamped beneath the pan. Overall length 133cm"
"This flintlock musket is typical of thousands produced in Birmingham during the 18th and 19th centuries for export throughout the British Empire. The Royal African Company, established in the late 17th century, supplied muskets in payment for slaves. Later, the African Company of Merchants continued this trade and by 1775 the price for a slave had risen to at least two muskets. Manufacture of trade muskets continued long after the Abolition of Slavery in 1833"
Kind regards
Cerjak