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This paper highlights the existence in the nineteenth century of a “space-network” of the slave trade, organizing the Gulf, the Oman Sea and the north of the Indian Ocean. The various economic integrations of this “space-network” and the complex structure of the trade routes supplying the slaves are examined. Furthermore, the areas providing captives, the diversity of the markets buying slaves, i.e. the Ottoman Empire and the societies of the Arabian Peninsula, are also studied. An emphasis is put on the “depth” of this particular regional economic system. This paper also presents a very original view on the attempt of the British power against slavery and the slave trade: the British, by signing treaties with the regional powers for the regulations against slavery, (I mean Persia, the Ottoman Empire, the independent Pashas of Egypt, the Sultan of Oman and the sheikhs of the “Trucial Coast”) have gradually built a transnational political territory “codified” by those agreements, and “pacified” by the patrols of the Indian Navy and the Royal Navy. The British attempt in these areas thus marks a milestone in the history of legislation against slavery, but also in the drafting of a law on the seas.