Mali+Trade



Trade was very important in Ancient Africa, the Mali empire controlled all of the salt and gold trade!

//__Gold:__// All of the Gold was owned by the king. It was illegal to trade gold within the borders. All of the gold nuggets had to be turned in and be exchaged for an equal amount of gold using gold dust. The Mali Empire had 2 immense gold mines.
 * Trading Goods:**

Site: http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/earthsci/imagearchive/gold.jpg

__//Salt://__ In northern africa, salt was as good as gold, salt was worth even more in the south. This was because the south was in need of salt and the north had no shortage of salt. So every year merchants would go to Mali with camel loads of salt to sell in Niani.

Site: http://www.mii.org/Minerals/Minpics1/Rock%20Salt.jpg

__//Copper://__ Copper was traded in bars. It was mined from Tahkeeda in the north, and then traded in the south for gold. 60 copper bars were traded for 100 [|dinars] (a sort of coin made out of gold) of gold.

site: http://www.diracdelta.co.uk/science/source/c/o/copper/copper-001.jpg

//__Niger River:__// The Niger River was an important highway for trade goods, such as, gold, iron, copper, ivory, pepper, salt, fabrics, and eventually slaves.
 * Trading Transportation:**

Timbuktu, Gao, and Djenne, were all major cities along trade routes, the eventually became main trading centers.
 * Trading Centers:**

Trade Exchange: They trade gold, kola nuts, and slaves, FOR cloth, copper, dates, [|figs], metal goods, and salt.

Kola Nuts: http://www.drugstoremuseum.com/images/level_imgs/6549874616165.jpg

Cloth: http://www.orbitals.com/self/survey/pin/big/cloth.jpg

Dates: http://www.all-creatures.org/recipes/images/i-dates-medjool.jpg

Figs: http://www.jeffcook.info/Croatia/Links/Dubrovnik%20-%20Fresh%20Figs.jpg

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