Conventional price elasticity of demand is a simplistic and elementary formula that has mathematical and economic deficiencies when applied to price (rates) and demand (balances) of deposit products: It does not recognize inverse relations between price and demand.
At its peak in 1300, the Mali Empire covered an area about twice the size of modern-day France and stretched to the west coast of Africa. In the late 19th century, during the Scramble for Africa, France seized control of Mali, making it a part of French Sudan.
The Beginnings of Mali. With the demise of Ghana, another great empire arose in West Africa. Mali, located in the Sahel, a grassland region on the southern border of the Sahara Desert, became powerful by controlling the rich trans-Saharan trade routes between northern and western Africa, especially the gold trade. Mali was located in an agriculturally rich area along the upper Niger River. Most of the gold for trade came up the Niger River, which gave Mali a chance to control that trade. Control of the Niger River helped Mali grow as an empire.