Short answers, pulled from the story.
Eric Williams arrived at the University of Oxford in 1931 on an Island Scholarship from Trinidad. He joined St Catherine's Society which was not yet a full college until that year when it became the Delegacy for Non-Collegiate Students.
Eric Williams argues that economic self-interest drove abolition rather than moral sentiment. He claims slavery generated high profits that helped finance the Industrial Revolution through British capital derived directly from unpaid labor.
Fredric Warburg refused to publish the work because it undermined humanitarian motivations behind Britain's Slavery Abolition Act 1833. He stated he would never publish such a book as it contradicted British tradition regarding the abolition movement.
Professor David Eltis noted 45 million enslaved people existed globally in 1804 with Britain holding only 1.7 percent. He questioned why industrialization did not occur earlier in America or Spain despite vast numbers of enslaved individuals.
André Deutsch published the first British edition in 1964 with an introduction by Denis William Brogan. No major British publisher released the work until forty years after Williams died despite repeated attempts.