In this paper, we discuss the basis of the illegal slave trade between Africa and Cuba, measuring its volume and profit during the first half of the nineteenth century. Due to its illegal nature, the sources for exploring this trade were systematically destroyed, but we have been able to locate the accountancy of 17 expeditions that gives us a comprehensive understanding of the profits, margins, and risks. The basis to understanding this business was the murderous use of enslaved persons in the sugar mills, which forced a continuous repositioning through an illegal, although tolerated by the Spanish authorities, business. We demonstrate that from an economic point of view, the slave trade after illegalization was highly profitable, as the financial return of successful expeditions was near 100 per cent of the invested capital in less than a year. The risk of capture by the British authorities, associated with its illegal nature, was only high during the initial moments, and became steadily lower afterwards. In terms of volume, the trade of a half million enslaved persons illegally smuggled into Cuba produced what was probably the island's most important market.

中文翻译：

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“没有任何商业活动能带来更大的利益”：十九世纪上半叶古巴奴隶贸易的盈利能力

在本文中，我们讨论了非洲和古巴之间非法奴隶贸易的基础，衡量了十九世纪上半叶的数量和利润。由于其非法性质，探索这项贸易的来源被系统性地摧毁，但我们已经找到了 17 次探险的会计记录，这让我们对利润、利润和风险有了全面的了解。了解这一行业的基础是糖厂对奴隶的残忍利用，这迫使西班牙当局通过一项非法业务不断重新定位，尽管西班牙当局容忍了这一业务。我们证明，从经济角度来看，非法化后的奴隶贸易利润丰厚，成功探险的财务回报在不到一年的时间里就接近投资资本的 100%。由于其非法性质，被英国当局抓获的风险仅在最初阶段很高，随后逐渐降低。从数量来看，50万非法偷运到古巴的奴隶的贸易可能是该岛最重要的市场。