Page 98 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

trading patterns, mesoamerican 1875

The Caribbean Trade

During Christopher Columbus’s fourth voyage to
the Western Hemisphere, he encountered a large
Mayan dugout canoe laden with trade goods.The place setting to sell small lots of regular or seasonal sur-
diversity of goods from far distant areas carried by pluses, such as pottery, baskets, herbs, fruits, turkeys, and
these Mayan merchants is indicative of the scale prepared foods such as tortillas and tamales.
of trade in Mesoamerica at the time of the Span-
ish arrival. Markets
The most pervasive context for trading activities was the
These merchants carried commodities from
marketplace. Every city and community (except for the
throughout Mesoamerica, including:
very smallest) had a marketplace and held a market
Cacao beans from the tropical lowlands; either daily or on a periodic basis (usually every five or
twenty days). It was typically the liveliest spot of the com-
Fancy textiles probably also from lowland
munity, where individuals from all walks of life congre-
sources;
gated to exchange goods and gossip. During the period
Obsidian knives and swords from the of Aztec imperial dominance, the largest marketplace in
highlands; Mesoamerica had developed at Tlatelolco, also a major
residence for long-distance professional merchants. By
Bronze axes and bells from the Tarascan region
1519, Tlatelolco was geographically and politically
of western Mexico;
attached to Tenochtitlán, the Aztec (Mexican) capital
Crucibles for smelting copper, also probably city. Reportedly, this market accommodated as many as
from western Mexico. 20,000–25,000 vendors and consumers daily, while
Source: Columbus, F. (1959). The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by his every fifth day it served twice as many people. Being the
son Ferdinand (B. Keen, trans.). New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
grandest market in the land, virtually every type of prod-
uct and commodity, from far and wide, was available
there. Other marketplaces were less extensive, serving
somewhat different type of commodity, fancy polychrome smaller populations, fewer elite, and more restricted
pottery, also falls into this category, although it was rela- areas. Still other marketplaces became known for their
tively heavy and probably carried a higher value than specialties: For instance, lakeside Texcoco was known for
other goods carried in this manner. Transport of these ceramics, cloth, and fine gourds; forested Coyoacán
raw and manufactured commodities was typically in the focused on wood products and carpenters; the Basin city
hands of professional regional merchants, although of Acolman was famous for its dogs; and Azcapotzalco,
records from the Postclassic period also indicate that the in the western part of the Basin of Mexico, had a noted
actual producers sometimes carried their own goods market for slaves.
over ecological zones for purposes of trade.The transport These scenes of bustling economic and social activity
involved considerable effort, since nearly all of these were commonplace during the Postclassic, but probably
goods traveled between lowlands and highlands. developed earlier. Marketplaces are difficult to detect
A great deal of trade was carried on by individual pro- archaeologically, since markets were often held in an
ducers, most of it over more restricted distances.This type open plaza, and once market day was over, the plaza was
of trade involved most foodstuffs, such as maize and swept clean and returned to its original function. There-
beans, which were heavy, bulky, and relatively low in fore, only vague and spotty information on them exists
value; it was inefficient to incorporate such goods in long- for Formative and Classic times. However, a great deal of
distance trading enterprises. Other, similar goods information on markets and market activities exists for
included utilitarian pottery wares and wood products. the Postclassic and early colonial periods from historical
Individual producers also took advantage of the market- documents that supplement the archaeological record.