Rogue trader

(n) A little known offshoot of the slave trade was the practice of selling prisoners. When British jails became overcrowded in the 17th century, a warden would furtively contact a merchant willing to buy prisoners, known as a “rogue trader”. This practice proved a valuable source of income for the prison authorities and continued for some time after the slave trade had been abolished.

Rogue traders would purchase inmates from debtors prisons, village jails and long-term facilities, usually poor souls without families or those serving severe sentences with little hope of being released, and ship them to the colonies for hard, manual labouring tasks: mining, railway building, prostitution. Rogue traders were cruel, unsentimental men who thought of prisoners as little more than animals. Conditions on the ships were brutal and punishment for anyone trying to escape or disobeying orders could be sadistic. One man was reportedly hung on a meat hook and taught to play the accordion for an entire round-the-world voyage. Rogue traders were therefore feared, despised and vilified throughout society and it was only natural that the phrase should later be adapted to mean someone in the financial sector with a terrible taste in shirts.