Kingdom of Kongo - Economic Structure

Economic Structure

The universal currency in Kongo and just about all of Central Africa was shell money known locally as nzimbu. One hundred nzimbu could purchase a hen; 300 a garden hoe and 2000 a goat. Slaves, which were always a part of Kongo's economy but increased in trade after contact with Portugal were also bought in nzimbu. A female slave could be purchased (or sold) for 20,000 nzimbu and male slave for 30,000. Nzimbu shells were fished from island of Luanda and kept as a royal monopoly. The smaller shells were filtered out so that only the large shells entered the marketplace as currency. The Kongo would not trade for gold or silver, but nzimbu shells, often put in pots in special increments, could buy anything. Kongo's "money pots" held increments of 40, 100, 250, 400, 500. For especially large purchases, there were standardized units such as a funda (1,000 big shells), Lufuku (10,000 big shells) and a kofo (20,000 big shells).

The Kongo administration regarded their land as renda, revenue assignments. The Kongo government exacted a monetary head tax for each villager, which may well have been paid in kind as well, forming the basis for the kingdom's finances. The king granted titles and income, based on this head tax. Holders reported annually to the court of their superior for evaluation and renewal.

Provincial governors paid a portion of the tax returns from their provinces to the king. Dutch visitors to Kongo in the 1640s reported this income as twenty million nzimbu shells. In addition, the crown collected its own special taxes and levies, including tolls on the substantial trade that passed through the kingdom, especially the lucrative cloth trade between the great cloth producing region of the "Seven Kingdoms of Kongo dia Nlaza," the eastern regions, called "Momboares" or "The Seven" in Kikongo, and the coast, especially the Portuguese colony of Luanda.

Crown revenues supported the church, paid by revenue assignments based on royal income. For example, Pedro II (1622–1624)detailed the finances of his royal chapel by specifying that revenues from various estates and provincial incomes would support it. Baptismal and burial fees also supported local churches.

When King Garcia II of Kongo|Garcia II gave up the island of Luanda and its royal fisheries to the Portuguese in 1651, he switched the kingdom's currency to raffia cloth. The cloth was "napkin-sized" and called mpusu. In the 17th century, 100 mpusu could buy one slave implying a value greater than that of the nzimbu currency.