The goodwill between the parties was based on the two countries' commercial relations. The trading had begun with the bartering of European products for African goods, but the Portuguese soon began to buy up slaves. The slave trade expanded rapidly as the Spanish colonies in the New World began to require ever increasing numbers of laborers. By 1525 five to six thousand slaves were being shipped out of Africa each year. The slave trade was made easier by the fact that the Kongo kingdom was well organized. The kingdom had a trade network in place that allowed merchandise, including slaves, to be shipped from deep inland.
Certain local tribes began to gain wealth and power by making their living as slave merchants. They raided small inland villages and carried off the inhabitants to be sold on the coast to the Portuguese. Eventually, though, the constant demand for slaves became generally detrimental to the African kingdom. In 1526 the Kongo king Nzinga Nbemba wrote to the king of Portugal, asking that the slave trade be halted. The king's men "seize upon our subjects, sons of the land and sons of our noblemen and vassals and relatives...
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