Economy

The Economy of the Mali Empire was mostly based on trade, especially the gold trade. Mali acted as the middleman between North African traders and the Africans who lived south of Mali. They controlled trade with army of Mali so it was a safe place to trade. The Malinke also taxed traded goods like salt and gold. By doing this Mali became even wealthier and more powerful than its predecessor, Ghana. Mali also had many other trade routes going from North Africa to East Africa and to the Horn of Africa. The Malinke people used boats and camel caravans to travel and to transport their goods. Two big trading cities at that time were Timbuktu and Gao. Also, to make sure that the value of gold, their main trade good, did not drop the rulers of Mali limited the amount of gold people in the empire could sell and buy.