Luxuries Market

Transforming the raw materials of the earth into desired goods of refinement, beauty, and flair is a wondrous art.

The Soninke clans, from which the Manga of Ghana originated, formed an organized and active merchant diaspora. Established in each of the Ghana Empire’s urban centers, they formed a trading network that could circulate goods along caravan routes over very long distances. In the cities, merchants would assemble in trading quarters where the transactions took place. The trading quarters contained all the warehouses and grain stores for storing local products and imported commodities. Trans-Saharan trade brought slaves, gold, and salt into the Mediterranean region, which were then traded for spices, horses, glass objects, and jewelry. The Ghana Empire became a wealthy trading hub thanks to the taxes it collected on each commodity that entered or left the Manga territory.