Trade between three countries which creates a more favorable flow of trade for each than would exist between only two of them dealing directly with each other.

Triangular trade is a historical term referring to the 18th century trade among the West Indies, the west coast of Africa, and North America or England. The commodities involved were several, but principally they were sugar, rum, and slaves. The trade brought much wealth to the ship owners and the profits ultimately became one of the foundations of American capitalism, though a free-market economy continued to thrive long after the abolition of slavery in the U.S.