The importance of coffee for São Tomé and Príncipe in view of the prohibition of slave trade by England

Abstract

This article addresses coffee farming in São Tomé and Príncipe just after the English ban on the slave trade in 1807. Considered a key crop for of the development of agriculture in the archipelago, despite initial resistance to its cultivation, coffee maintained foreign commerce when the English ban and the anchorage exemption granted by the Portuguese crown to Brazilian ships trading in the Costa da Mina provided rights to the ports where the commercial bargains occurred. Benefiting from the demand for quality coffee beans, the crop gradually won the interest of local producers seeking to overcome the negative economic impact of the ban on the islands’ largest source of customs revenue: the commerce in enslaved people.