Research Finds Slave-Trade Wealth Deeply Embedded in Britain's Financial System

New research into Britain's historical involvement in the transatlantic slave trade has found that the Bank of England and the wider British financial system were, for centuries, deeply connected to the enslavement and trafficking of millions of African people, according to The Guardian.

The findings come from historians compiling the Register of British Slave Traders, a project examining the extent of British financial institutions' ties to slavery. According to the research, the scale of the financial system's involvement in enslavement is greater than previously known or publicly acknowledged.

The Bank of England, which has been owned by the British government since it was nationalised by Clement Attlee's Labour administration in 1946, was reportedly founded with the involvement of dozens of financiers who were also significant investors in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans, the research found.

The Guardian reported that these findings add to a growing body of research documenting the financial underpinnings of Britain's role in the slave trade, and the extent to which wealth generated through the trafficking and enslavement of Africans was woven into the foundations of British financial institutions.

The Guardian's report did not specify further details on the identities of the individuals involved or the full scope of the register's findings beyond what has been outlined. Further details of the research were expected to be made available as part of the ongoing project.