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The Kongo Kingdom, located in west-central Africa, engaged in extensive trade with Portuguese merchants during the 15th and 16th centuries. The most significant and notorious product that Kongo traded with the Portuguese was slaves. This trade became a crucial part of the transatlantic slave trade, where enslaved individuals were captured and sold to European traders, who then transported them to the Americas for labor.

While gold and silver were valuable commodities in trade, the primary focus of Kongo's exchanges with the Portuguese increasingly centered around the slave trade as demand for labor in the Americas grew. Additionally, spices, while highly sought after in global trade, were not a significant product of the Kongo region itself and thus were not traded extensively by Kongo with the Portuguese. This context highlights the importance of understanding the historical economic exchanges that shaped the dynamics of early modern international trade, particularly in the context of slavery.