The atmosphere might have been one of quiet routine for the traders had there not been acute rivalries between the European powers; especially the Dutch, who made use of native allies against their rivals.

The company was to be run by a committee of six: the Earl of Pembroke, Lord Craven, George Caveret, Ellis Leighton and Cornelius Vermuyden.

The 1663 charter prohibits others to trade in "redwood, elephants' teeth, negroes, slaves, hides, wax, guinea grains, or other commodities of those countries".

[4][9] Forts served as staging and trading stations, and the company was responsible for seizing any English ships that attempted to operate in violation of its monopoly (known as interlopers).

For several years after that, the company maintained some desultory trade, including licensing single-trip private traders, but its biggest effort was the creation in 1668 of the Gambia Adventurers.

[11] This new company was separately subscribed and granted a ten-year licence for African trade north of the Bight of Benin with effect from 1 January 1669.

Its new charter was broader than the old one and included the right to set up forts and factories, maintain troops, and exercise martial law in West Africa, in pursuit of trade in "gold, silver, negroes, slaves, goods, wares and merchandises whatsoever".

[17][18] Between 1672 and 1731, the Royal African Company transported 187,697 enslaved people on company-owned ships (653 voyages) to English colonies in the Americas.

The company allied with a merchant prince named John Cabess and various neighbouring African kingdoms to depose the king of Eguafo and establish a permanent fort and factory in Komenda.

[4] In 1689, the company acknowledged that it had lost its monopoly with the end of royal power in the Glorious Revolution, and it ceased issuing letters of marque.

[21] Edward Colston transferred a large segment of his original shareholding to William III at the beginning of 1689, securing the new regime's favour.

[24] Among other provisions, the Act opened the African trade to all English merchants who paid a ten per cent levy to the company on all goods exported from Africa.

[4] In 1709 Charles Davenant published Reflections upon the Constitution and Management of Trade to Africa, in which he "reverted to his normal attitude of suspicion and outright hostility towards the Dutch.