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In the late 18th century Britain’s Caribbean island colony of Grenada was a place of boom and bust. A hurricane, a plague of ants, and Britain’s wars against France and American revolutionaries made for volatile trade in its main commodities – sugar, coffee, and slaves.
Amid the turmoil, property changed hands regularly among Britain’s financial elite, but in the early 1770s the ownership of two plantations and 599 people passed to an unusual new owner: the Bank of England.
