(I) British dominance of the slave trade in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries gave it decisive economic advantages over other nations. (II) As one Englishman wrote in 1749, the slave trade had provided “an inexhaustible fund of wealth to this nation.” (III) But even apart from the slave trade, the value of colonial commerce was increasing dramatically during the eighteenth century. (IV) Like the Spanish colonies, the French colonies in the New World were established and administered as direct crown enterprises. (V) For instance, British foreign trade increased in value from £10 million in the 1730s to £40 million in the 1750s.