Swiss trading companies, banks, city states, family enterprises, mercenary contractors, soldiers and private individuals all profited from the slave trade. Specific Swiss links to the slave trade, some of which predate nationhood, are documented on the website louverture.ch.external link
For example, between 1719 and 1734, the city state of Bern as well as two banking houses “Malacrida” and “Samuel Muller” held shares in the speculative South Sea Company which kept slave deposits on Barbados and shipped some 20,000 slaves from Africa to the New World.
Slavery also played a role in the establishment of Switzerland's textile industry.
The Swiss government, it is noted, has always made the case that Switzerland as a nation state has never been involved in slavery nor been a colonial power.
