MMW 13 Lecture 6: Lecture 6- Trade Networks in West Africa
Document Summary
Reliant on oxen packs: transport breakthrough in 5th century, the camel revolution (1) twice as fast and twice as far as pack-oxen (2) brought in from arabia. Could go 10 in the desert without water and withstand tremendous warmth and cold. Well adapted to this environment. (a) large splayed feet. First to have really close links to the berbers in the desert. Salt coming south and gold going north. (a) 8th and 9th century. This stabilized the area because they all shared a religion. One dinar(?) for everything coming in and two for everything coming out. Everyone was able to still profit from this. Niche trade with everyone benefitting. (2) the only thing that was traded was gold dust. Big nuggets of gold belonged to the king: kumbi-saleh in the 11th century, consisted of two towns (1) kumbi is one town, saleh the other.
