ABSTRACT
Commerce was most important to the Tio, since it was the source of wealth and one of the sources of power. But the trade of the Tio represented only a segment in a widely flung network involving many peoples, a network linked itself at the coast of the Atlantic ocean with the world markets. The first and crucial question arising in discussion of the trading economy of the Tio is to determine which segments of the Great Congo Commerce should be considered. The differences between the trade to the coast and the carriers upstream consisted then essentially in the much slower pace of trade over land, the greater expense from tolls, the much greater amount of manpower needed, and the exclusion of the Tio from the trade towards the coast. The main commodities for sale against the coastal imports were ivory and slaves. Evidence for the volume of trade in different segments of the network and for the different commodities is fragmentary.
