Computing the profit rates of slave trade is central to the debate on the importance of this trade for the development of England and France in the 18th century. This paper presents the three methods that historians have used to compute profits, alongside with their results. The paper explains why the study of voyages accounts seems the most promising method. It then examines its specific difficultes. The ambition of this paper is not to solve the debate on profit rates : it is rather to give a framework in which the debate can be resolved.
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Guillaume Daudin (2002) studied this question.