The Royal Adventurers had a monopoly on Africa — and went bankrupt in 12 years

The Company of Royal Adventurers Trading into Africa was founded in December 1660, immediately after the Stuart Restoration. Inspired by Prince Rupert's tales of gold mines in Gambia, the Duke of York and a circle of royal courtiers secured a charter from King Charles II granting them exclusive rights to trade on the west coast of Africa. The company was a courtier venture, not a merchant enterprise — its investors were royal favourites, not experienced traders.

A second charter in January 1663 expanded the company's monopoly from Cape Sallee to the Cape of Good Hope and explicitly included the slave trade. The company raised capital of £120,200 and dispatched about 40 ships carrying goods worth £160,000. It built forts in the Gambia River and held Fort Kormentine on the Gold Coast. In 1664, Captain Robert Holmes captured several Dutch forts, giving the company control of the coast — but also provoking the Dutch.

The Dutch retaliated decisively. In 1665, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, Admiral Michiel de Ruyter attacked the English settlements on the African coast. The company lost cargoes from eight ships and nearly all its forts; only Cape Corse remained. The war destroyed the company's trading network. By 1667 the company had accumulated debts of about £57,000, having expended all its capital and more. It was forced to license independent traders to generate any revenue at all.

The company never recovered. In 1672, after five years of struggling to restructure, the old stock was valued at only 10% — £12,020 of the original £120,200. Creditors were offered 40% of their debts. The company's charter was surrendered, and a new charter was granted on September 27, 1672, creating the Royal African Company in its place. The original investors lost everything. The company that had set out to monopolise the African trade lasted 12 years.