The announcement comes after a UK media report, which released an exclusive document revealing the transfer of shares worth 1,000 pounds sterling ($203,167) in the slave-trading Royal African Company by its Deputy Governor Edward Colston to King William III in 1689.
"This is an issue that His Majesty takes profoundly seriously … As part of that drive, the royal household is supporting this research through access to the royal collection and the royal archives," the Buckingham Palace spokesperson was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
The Historic Royal Palaces, a charity which manages some of the UK's unoccupied royal palaces, is a partner in the study that was launched in October 2022, the spokesperson added.
The United Kingdom was one of the main slave-trading countries. Together with Portugal, it accounted for about 70% of all Africans transported to the Americas. The UK mostly prevailed in the slave trade in 1640-1807, transporting about 3.1 million Africans, of whom 2.7 million arrived in the British colonies in the Caribbean, North and South America and other countries, according to data provided by the UK National Archives.