[apexalpha]

Countries like Netherlands, France, England definitely profited form the slave trade. But there are many European nations, Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, that didn't.

[Daishiman]

So you think that the abundant, cheap, raw material that made it into European factories that spurred the Industrial age materialized out of nowhere?

[gorbachev]

Scandinavian countries, however, had an underclass, who worked in near-slave-like environments for the benefit of land owners.

[apexalpha]

Yes, as did every other (European) nation at the time. The benefits of the slave trade in the Netherlands did not go to the bottom part of society...