ECONOMY
the economy of the Mali Empire prospered by monopolizing the gold trade and developing resources along the Niger river. Another major source of income For the Mali empire was taxes. The Mali government put high taxes on all goods being traded. This gave Mali more revenue to spend on reinforcing its army and defense. a major item in Mali was gold. All of the gold nuggets belonged to the king. Only Gold dust could be traded. At one point gold was used as a form of currency. So was cotton and cloth. Later on Cowrie shells from the Indian ocean was widely used as currency in Mali.