economy: Africa 311 tions or to pay tribute Much of the rise and fall in economic success of the two empires depended on neighboring peoples paying tribute The tribute was usually paid in goods and slaves Both the Ghana and Mali empires had important gold mines The empire of Ghana was never able to exert direct control over its mines, which were established deep in nearby forests in locations that remained carefully guarded secrets Monarchs of the empire of Mali claimed direct control over gold mines to make sure the profits went to the empire and especially to the monarch But even some Mali mines escaped the control of the government In each case the government became rich in the gold trade by controlling the opportunities for gold to be traded, making sure the miners traded only with representatives of the empire Since ancient times the people who worked those mines had taken pains to keep the locations of their mines secret, and even during the medieval era some successfully kept them secret This did not mean that they escaped government oversight altogether, because to trade their gold they had to go to markets that were regulated by the government Under the law of Ghana all gold had to be traded to the monarch, and miners had no choice but to exchange their gold for goods whose values were regulated by the government The empire of Ghana taxed the production of goods within its borders, taking a share of whatever was produced, and it taxed trade goods both entering and leaving the country With the wealth generated by trading gold with North Africa, the empires of Ghana and Mali could maintain large, well-equipped armies The empires used their armies to ensure that their neighbors paid tribute and to enslave people captured from the interior, fostering a slave trade that generated much wealth for the empires Trading Economies of Ethiopia and East Africa Ethiopia’s medieval economy was complicated by its relationship to the Muslims, who gradually took control of much of the territory surrounding Ethiopia From ancient times the kingdom of Axum near the coast had traded extensively with the Near East and the rest of Asia, and it shared close relations with the Arabs Early in the medieval era pressure from Muslim armies forced the Axumite kingdom to collapse, and the center of government moved west from Axum into the Ethiopian highlands Although Ethiopia built magnificent structures, most notably Christian churches, it did not have a seat of government as most empires did Instead, the monarchs of Ethiopia tended to move about, living in large tents This was not a unique practice For example, before the Norman invasion of 1066, English kings tended to travel from place to place in their country because no one place could feed their entire court for more than a short time This may have been one of the reasons the Ethiopian monarchs were nomadic; other possible reasons include making sure their presence and leadership were evident and acknowledged in their far-flung lands and making it hard for invaders to locate them in times of war With trade to the east and south often disrupted by Islamic incursions, Ethiopia developed strong relationships to the north and west To the north was Egypt Beginning with the Islamic takeover of Egypt in the 600s, Ethiopia paid a tribute of 365 slaves each year to Egypt, a practice that continued into the 1300s, despite occasional changes of regime in Egypt In exchange for this tribute, Ethiopians on pilgrimages to Jerusalem were given safe passage through Egypt and access to Egyptian markets For most of the medieval era Ethiopia was a powerful empire that exacted tributes from its other neighbors The rulers of Eritrea paid tribute in silk and cotton from China and India, armor and weapons from the Near East, gold, and Arabian horses Provinces outside the Ethiopian highlands paid tributes with shares of their harvests as well as with cattle, mules, ivory, gold, honey, and wax In 1332 Ethiopia conquered Dawaro, Bali, and Sharka, small states to the south that were then forced to pay tribute The internal economy of Ethiopia resembled that of feudal Europe during the Middle Ages Fiefs were held by chiefs, knights, monasteries, and even the monarch, and according to accounts from outsiders, the peasants were ill treated Peasants were required to pay one-third of their harvests to their feudal masters In northern Ethiopia trade with foreigners was spurred by a need to acquire portable goods that could be paid as taxes to the government The monarch took the entire court when traveling around Ethiopia, including bureaucrats, servants, and soldiers Moving the monarch every three months or so from one place to another required between 50,000 and 100,000 donkeys and thousands of bearers The monarch and nobles had between 5,000 and 6,000 tents On a smaller scale provincial governors and local chiefs replicated this process of moving their governments During the medieval era several powerful city-states arose along the east coast of Africa, from south of Ethiopia through modern-day Mozambique Among these city-states were, from north to south, Warsheikh, Mogadishu, Bur Gao, Ungwana, Malindi, Gedi, Mombasa, Mtambe Mkuu (on Pemba Island), Unguija Ukuu (on Zanzibar Island), Mkandini, Dar es Salaam, Kivinja, Kilwa, Murrapania, Sofala, and Chibuene These city-states existed entirely for trade, and they became—like the great trading cities of medieval Italy—trading empires with great fleets and domination over the territories around them At least two of these city-states, Kilwa and