Commerce of the Aztec Empire
"Very enterprising and very bold, the Aztec merchants played an important part in their country, and their powerful corporations paved the way for almost all their conquests..."
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From The Aztecs: Their History, Manners, and Customs by Lucien Biart, 1900.
Fishing, hunting, and the arts which they cultivated caused many branches of commerce to spring up among the Aztecs. From the date of their settlement on Lake Tezcoco, they engaged in traffic, selling the fish they caught and the rush-mats which they wove to their neighbors. In exchange, they obtained maize, cotton, stone, lime, and wood, which they lacked. In proportion as they increased their territory by force of arms, they enlarged their commerce, which soon extended as far as the most distant provinces of their empire.
Very enterprising and very bold, the Aztec merchants played an important part in their country, and their powerful corporations paved the way for almost all their conquests. In their foreign enterprises they were morally and materially sustained by their sovereigns, who spared them neither privileges nor pecuniary rewards, neither honors, nor, at time of need, their substantial aid.
These traffickers, real colonizers, always travelled in large numbers. They established themselves in distant countries, and there, by reason of their wealth, their shrewdness, and their cunning, they gradually became masters of all business. At last, under pretexts which they excelled in creating, these emigrants declared that their interests had been wronged, or that they were in danger, and an army of their fellow-countrymen hastened to protect them. These emigrants became its scouts, guided, directed, and informed it in regard to the forces of the enemy, and a new province was soon added to those of the empire.
This ingenious method of conquest was that of the Carthaginians, and that which gave the English the tutelage of half the world, and has it not in our days — there is nothing new under the sun — built up the modern German empire?
In all the centres of Aztec population there were permanent markets, and every five days a general market was held. An agreement was established between the cities to choose different dates, in order to cause no dissatisfaction. The great markets of Mexico were celebrated; they were held once a week.
Up to the reign of Axayacatl, sixth king of Mexico, the market was held in the square before the palace of the king. But after the conquest of Tlatelolco, it was transported to that suburb, to a square which, according to Cortez, was twice as large as that of Salamanca. Rectangular in form, this plaza was surrounded with porticos, which protected the market people. There all kinds of merchandise were exposed for sale, at a point designated by the "judges of commerce." Jewelry, cotton cloths, feather mosaics, etc., could be sold only at the place set aside for them. Since, in spite of its dimensions, the place could not contain all merchandise brought there, and which would have impeded circulation, stone, timbers, lime, in a word, all cumbrous materials were left on the canal or in the neighboring streets.
The number of venders who daily thronged the market was, according to Cortez, more than fifty thousand; however, according to the anonymous Conqueror, it was only on every fifth day of the week that there was such a concourse, and twenty or twenty-five thousand merchants supplied the ordinary markets. The quantity and the variety of the goods sold or bartered in Mexico was so considerable that historians, after endless enumerations, declare their inability to name them all. Not only the productions of the empire, but also those of the neighboring States, were for sale in these markets, — objects to supply the necessities of life, or intended to please the taste, the curiosity, or the vanity of the buyers.
These markets had numbers of animals, living and dead, all the articles of food in use, all metals worked, every species of precious stone. Plants, gums, resins, mineral earths, ointments, oils, and plasters used by Aztec physicians, had their place, as well as fabrics of agave, of cotton, of palms, of feathers, and skins of animals. Slaves were sold there, as well as boats full of human excrement, used in dressing the skins of animals; in a word, everything which could be exchanged or bought found its place here, for in the interior of the city there existed no other shops except those in which provisions could be purchased. It was to the great market of Mexico that the jewellers of Cholula, the silversmiths of Azcapotzalco, the painters of Tezcoco, the shoemakers of Tenayucan, the hunters of Xilotepec, the fishers of Cuitlahuac, the gardeners of the Warm Lands, and the horticulturists of Xochimilco brought their celebrated products.
The transactions were not simple barters such as the Indians frequently make at the present time; they bought and sold. Four kinds of money were current in the empire, but none of it was coined. The first consisted of grains of cacao, — different from those used in the preparation of chocolate, — which passed from hand to hand, just as small change does among us. This cacao was reckoned by measures of eight thousand grains, and for merchandise of a high price by sacks of twenty-four thousand. Thirty-five years ago cacao was still current money in Mexico and Tehuantepec, and I have seen cakes of soap, eggs, and even candles fill the same office in several cities of the province of Vera Cruz.
The second species of money consisted of small squares of cotton cloth; it was used in small household purchases. The third was composed of small nuggets of gold enclosed in duck-quills, the transparency of which allowed the precious metal to be seen and its value to be estimated. The fourth, mentioned by Cortez, who has neglected to describe it, was made of tin, and was much like our pieces of money. The pieces of copper having the form of the letter T, of which many specimens are preserved in the museum of Mexico, have until recently been considered Aztec coins. According to Orozco and M. J. Sanchez, these pieces of copper were agricultural implements.
Merchandise was sold by the piece or by measure. Although scales were known to many of the peoples of America, the Aztecs did not make use of them. They had a contempt for them, it seems, on account of the ease with which the weights could be altered.
To prevent fraud and disorder, commissioners went about these markets, noticing everything that took place. A court, consisting of two judges, constantly sat in a neighboring house, settled differences and punished crimes on the instant.
Each commodity paid a tax to the king, who, in exchange, guaranteed to the merchants impartial justice and safety to their possessions and persons. Thefts in the markets were rare, as much on account of the vigilance of the commissioners as on account of the fear inspired by the prompt and terrible punishment that followed the least offence. Motolinia relates as an eye-witness that two women having engaged in a quarrel in the market of Tezcoco, one of them struck the other until blood flowed. The guilty one, amid the plaudits of the crowd, not accustomed to these acts of violence, was condemned to death.
All the Spaniards who have spoken of the Aztec markets are boundless in praise of their good arrangement and the order that reigned among the traffickers, as well as in the disposition of their wares. Let us add that this good order continues to a certain extent to the present day. The modern Mexican markets are still supplied with provisions of every sort, — with the products of manufactures as well as those of nature. They are fairs where objects of the greatest disparity are sold, — flowers, fruits, vegetables, game, lime, wood, vessels, cloths, charcoal, jewels, and birds.
When a merchant was preparing to undertake a journey he invited to dinner the most prominent men of his trade, those rendered inactive by age, and explained to them the reasons that impelled him to visit other countries. The guests praised his resolution, urged him to follow the steps of his ancestors, and, especially if it was his first journey, gave him advice drawn from their own experience.
Merchants almost always journeyed in caravans in order to have greater security. In their hand they generally carried a smooth black stick, which represented their protecting god, Xacateuctli. Thus armed, they believed themselves safe from all danger, and when they arrived at a hostelry they put all their sticks together and worshipped them; often in the night they bled themselves in honor of their god.
During the absence of a merchant, his wife and children might bathe, but they were allowed to wash the head only every eightieth day, — as much as a sign of sorrow as to merit by this penance the protection of the gods. If the merchant died during his journey, the news was transmitted to the oldest merchants of his city, who communicated it to the kinsmen of the deceased. These immediately made a pine statue representing the dead man, and at the hour of the obsequies they treated the manikin as if it was really his body.
For the convenience of travellers there were roads all over the empire, which were repaired every year after the rainy season. In forests and desert places public shelters were built, and the rivers were provided with bridges or boats to enable people to cross. The boats were square, of various dimensions, and were moved with oars. The smallest, hollowed out of the trunk of a tree, held two persons; the largest carried as many as twenty.
In addition to the boats, the Aztecs used special rafts, called “balsas” by the Spaniards, to cross rivers. These rafts, five feet long, the use of which the modern Indians have not lost, are composed of platforms of bamboo placed upon large empty gourds. Five or six people take their places on these craft, which swimmers draw to the desired shore.
Bridges were generally made of wood, rarely of stone. The commonest were those perilous and picturesque bridges of clinging vines, which even to-day serve to cross the torrents or ravines of the Cordilleras, and for which Nature furnishes the materials. Europeans at times hesitate to venture upon these green foot-bridges thrown over profound abysses, and which are rocked by the breeze like hammocks; but the Indian, even laden with a burden, steps upon these flowered stems, thinking little more of the danger than do the live calandras, who are not afraid to suspend their nests to them.
We know nothing concerning the maritime commerce of the ancient Aztec empire, which, however, must have been very limited. The boats, in fact, ventured but a short distance from the shores which border the two oceans, and served only for fishing. The only traffic by water took place on Lake Tezcoco, which swarmed with canoes. Maize, timbers, stones, vegetables, flowers, and even the drinking-water which the population needed, was brought to Mexico by boats.
Merchandise which was not transported by water had to be brought on the backs of men, in consequence of the lack of beasts of burden; hence porters, called “tlamenes” were numerous in Mexico. Their ordinary load was sixty pounds, and they traversed about twelve miles a day. They undertook long journeys in the train of merchants, opened for themselves passages through the forests, climbing abrupt mountains, and crossing rivers by swimming.
At the present time, although horses, asses, and mules abound in Mexico, the Indians still accomplish long journeys, a load on their backs, over peaks of the Cordilleras where only paths exist; they even carry, at need, timid travellers, women, and children.
Biart, Lucien. The Aztecs: Their History, Manners, and Customs. Translated by John Leslie Garner, A.C. McClurg & Co, 1900.
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