The foreign trade network was where Great Zimbabwe flourished. Trade with the Swahili city-states, East Africa and with Europeans is what made Great Zimbabwe rich. Due to poor agriculture, the gold trade had become extremely important among African countries. The king mined and traded gold as well as ivory with the Swahili coast of East Africa and Europeans. The Mutapas were large exporters of gold. They exploited the northern areas of a reef extending from the northeast to the southwest along the watersheds of all Zimbabwe's rivers to coastal ports. The gold was extracted by the peasants but had to be given to the king as tribute. Gold was the main basis of wealth in the Zimbabwean economy as it was greatly sought after by Arab ports. The ivory trade was also booming because it had a significant monetary value and lasted longer than gold. Each madzimbahwe generated its own surplus which was used for exchange. Caches of imported items such as Indian glass beads, Chinese celadon dishes and silk have been discovered by archaeologists in the abandoned towns of Great Zimbabwe. Dominance over gold sources in the interior gave Great Zimbabwe a great commercial advantage over its rivals which it developed with Kilwa. and Sofala along the coast which developed alongside Arab centers through the gold trade. The balance between exports and imports with Africa could not be easily achieved. What African nations considered valuable and what foreigners considered valuable were two very different things. The value of gold was strong in African cultures, but items such as pottery and beads traded by the Arabs had a greater value due to their rarity, while gold was much more important to the Arabs than the goods they sold. of paper......trade influenced the steady decline of Great Zimbabwe. More than 20 million ounces of gold have been mined from the earth and used for commercial purposes. The combination of falling global gold prices and the depletion of gold supply led to the crash of Great Zimbabwe's economy, which left the country unable to import food to supply its harvests declining as monoculture took hold. of Great Zimbabwe can be explained by trade, environmental conditions, disease or even overpopulation. Trade can be seen as the main contributor, as changes in the value of gold most affected the survival of Great Zimbabwe. If the vast gold trade network had continued and the value and exports of gold in Africa had remained at their optimal levels, the population of Great Zimbabwe would have survived and the city would never have given up..