From Wikipedia: Royal African Company

Among the chartered companies that assisted the development of the English colonies. 

- Click here for the entry. 

The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English mercantile (trading) company set up in 1660 by the royal Stuart family and City of London merchants to trade along the west coast of Africa.[1] It was led by the Duke of York, who was the brother of King Charles II and in 1685, York took the throne as James II. The RAC shipped more African slaves to the Americas than any other company in the history of the Atlantic slave trade, and was owned entirely by the British Crown.[2][3]

It was established after Charles II gained the English throne in the Restoration of 1660.[4] While its original purpose was to exploit the gold fields up the Gambia River, which were identified by Prince Rupert during the Interregnum, it soon developed and led a brutal and sustained slave trade.[3] It also extracted other commodities, mainly from the Gold Coast. After becoming insolvent in 1708, it survived in a state of much reduced activity until 1752 when its assets were transferred to the new African Company of Merchants, which lasted until 1821.