You are a Colonist in an English Colony and you are a proud English Man. Because there are very important Ports in New York and other Colonies trading is going pretty well.



You are very proud that your Colony is able to produce Rum, because you can get a lot of money for good rum. But you cannot make all of the material you need for Rum by yourself. You need to trade molasses.

Your Colony also produces a lot of tobacco. Countries all over Europe want tobacco from your colonies and are willing to pay more than what you can get for your tobacco in England. You grow much more tobacco than you can sell in England so that the price has fallen. Also: growing tobacco is hard work, most Colonists don’t want to do it, so you need slaves to do the work.



Your job is to make the best trades possible. You cannot take more than 10 loads with you at the same time. Make sure you leave enough of your products behind so that other ships can still trade with your port. The table below shows you a list of things you need and where to get them. Before you set sail, you must draw your travel route onto the map. Because you need to be able to explain what you traded for what to your Governor, you need to write a diary marking your sales!

You represent the traders of the Mother Country, England. You believe that your colonies exist for your benefit and should supply you with the products you need. You control most of the manufactured goods needed in the colonies.

The goods you manufacture sell for higher prices than the raw materials you import from your colonies. But, as the Mother Country, you can trade with other countries. Your Colonies, however, are only allowed to trade with you – that also includes the West Indies and certain places in Africa. Parliament can pass laws controlling trade and has the power to place taxes on goods such as tobacco. To keep your men on the ships happy they need citrus.

You do not trade fairly – this means that you do not trade tobacco from the colonies for the same amount of tea. And why should you? They work for you!



Your job is to make the best trades possible so that England can get richer. You cannot take more than 10 loads with you at the same time. Make sure you leave enough of your products behind so that other ships can still trade with your port. The table below shows you a list of things you need and where to get them. Before you set sail, you must draw your travel route onto the map. Because you need to be able to explain what you traded for what, you need to write a diary marking your sales and to show how much profit you made.

Part A West Indies: The islands of the West Indies are beautiful. Jamaica, Barbados, all these Caribbean Islands may be small but they grow sugar. Lots and lots of sugar on huge plantations. A by-product of making sugar is molasses – a dark brown syrup, great for making Rum. You need a large number of workers to plant and harvest the sugar cane. Very few of the native people have survived so there are not enough people willing to do this difficult work. You need slaves. But you also sell them at auctions to the highest bidder.

You also have a supply of citrus fruits. Citrus supplies the vitamins needed during long sea voyages. Your ships are too small for long journeys. You can only sail to the American Colonies and when they come to you, they take your products and sell them somewhere else, but this also costs you something.

come to you, they take your products and sell some somewhere else, but this also costs you something.



Part B Africa: Africa is not a rich place to be. Lots of things are needed. Most of the people here live in tribes and get into wars. War prisoners can be sold as slaves. In order to be able to attack other villages or rivaling tribes, you need guns.

It’s a good thing that spices and slaves are easy to sell. Sadly, you don’t have any ships of your own so the slave ships from England have to bring and take everything for you. This costs you a lot.



Part A + B: Your job is to make the best trades possible. You cannot take more than 10 loads with you at the same time. Make sure you leave enough of your products behind so that other ships can still trade with your port. The table below shows you a list of things you need and where to get them. Before you set sail, you must draw your travel route onto the map. Because you need to be able to explain what you traded for what, write a diary of your sales.