“NO NATION IN EUROPE… HAS… PLUNGED SO DEEPLY INTO THIS GUILT AS GREAT BRITAIN” (WILLIAM PITT THE YOUNGER): VERY RARE 1713 ASSIENTO GRANTING BRITAIN A MONOPOLY IN THE SLAVE TRADE

(SLAVE TRADE). The Assiento, or, Contract for Allowing to the Subjects of Great Britain the Liberty of Importing Negroes into the Spanish America. Signed by the Catholick King at Madrid, the Twenty sixth Day of March, 1713. By Her Majesties Special Command. London: Printed by John Baskett, 1713. Quarto, full period-style full red morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spine and boards, black morocco spine label, marbled endpapers; pp. [3], 48.

First edition of the extremely rare 1713 Assiento that stands at the heart of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, granting Britain a highly coveted 30-year monopoly contract for trafficking in slaves—“the greatest prize, the El Dorado of commerce”—that shifted European power and firmly established British rule over the 18th-century slave trade.

This exceptionally rare printing of the 1713 Assiento marks a defining shift in European power through its transfer of a monopoly contract for trafficking in slaves that stands at the core of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. This granting of a 30-year monopoly in the slave trade to Britain gave the English "the greatest prize, the El Dorado of commerce, as it then seemed, the endlessly sought-after contract (asiento) to import slaves." That seeming reward came after years of conflict in "pursuit of the ideal monopoly contract (asiento) for trading slaves [that] was as vain as the search for a Fountain of Eternal Youth… Indeed, during the War of the Spanish Succession, which began in 1701, the issue of which nation afterwards would have the asiento was one of the more important questions at stake." Conflict was heightened when the Portuguese gave control of the asiento to the Spanish Crown in 1701. "The new French-born king of Spain, Philip V, immediately gave the opportunity to France… [which] was to enjoy a ten-year monopoly [1702-1712]." The treaty proved very unpopular among the Spanish, who felt "the imperial economy was being handed over to the object of national derision"— the French (Thomas, Slave Trade, 227-9). France, however, itself faced fierce competition from Britain, for even as "the rhetoric of liberty was being most noisily shouted at home, that the slave economy of the British Empire was being created in the Caribbean" (Schama II:411).

Many in England shared Spanish anger "that France should have secured the great contract," and "when the Treaty of Utrecht came to be drawn up in 1713, to conclude the war of the Spanish Succession, the British were able to insist on taking over the asiento." In her June 1712 speech to Parliament, Queen Anne proclaimed "I have insisted and obtained that the asiento or contract for furnishing the Spanish West Indies shall be made with us for 30 years." The British government quickly sold the privilege to the new South Sea Company, whose own economic troubles did not deter the flourishing British slave trade. It would be this very history that prompted William Pitt the Younger to declare before the House of Commons in 1791: "No nation in Europe… has… plunged so deeply into this guilt as Great Britain" (Thomas, 229-55). The Assiento consists of 42 articles, printed with Spanish and English text in parallel columns, outlining duties to be paid on slaves, slave transport (i.e. on English or Spanish ships), and specific contractual prohibitions and conditions. First edition, one of two issues identified by the ESTC as printed in 1713, no priority established: one title page with a semicolon after "Assiento" and no punctuation after "or" (this title page); the other with commas after "Assiento" and "or" in the title. With ornamental woodcut initials and ornamental headpiece on imprimatur leaf, which assigns the "sole Printing and Publishing of The Assiento" to John Baskett. Kress 2818. Sabin 2227.

Dedication leaf trimmed a little closely, not affecting legibility; minor foxing to last few leaves. Near-fine condition.