The Compensation Agency Business: London Merchants, Bankers, and the Payment of Slavery Compensation, 1835-46
通过分析英格兰银行档案中的补偿账户和股票分类账，本文研究了英国公司（尤其是伦敦金融城的公司）如何从1835年奴隶制补偿支付中获利，并发现27家“补偿代理”作为中介处理了约三分之二的交易。
Through analyzing the compensation accounts and stock ledgers in the Bank of England Archive, this article explores how British firms—especially those in the City of London—profited from the unique business opportunity that arose through the payment of slavery compensation in 1835. It uses a new dataset with 18,930 observations to establish that a cohort of 27 “compensation agents” handled as intermediaries approximately two-thirds of the transactions associated with £5 million paid in compensation as government stock (3.5% Reduced Annuities) to slave owners in Barbados, Mauritius, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Virgin Islands. The article argues that this demonstrates how the City’s financial capacity, infrastructure, and business community were significant in delivering the efficient payment of compensation. It also underscores the need to understand the slavery compensation process as contemporaries did; as an important moment in the history of the City and its financial markets.