Thesis on "Aztec Business Culture"

Thesis 8 pages (2316 words) Sources: 3 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Aztec Civilization:

Business Practices And Trade Culture

In order to fully understand the business practices and trade cultures of the Aztecs, one must first address the environment in which the Aztecs lived, worked and raised their families. First of all, the Aztecs were a Mesoamerican civilization, an anthropological term for a distinctive area that extends from north-central Mexico to Costa Rica along the rim of the Pacific Ocean. As Francis Berdan relates, Mesoamerica (i.e., middle America) "first took form with the initial spread of farming villages sometime around 2,000 B.C.E." (56) and by 1519 a.D. was made up of a large variety of people whose cultures greatly resembled one another as compared to other cultures then found in the New World. Despite the impact of the Spanish Conquest and later Spanish colonization, these groups of Mesoamericans which included the Aztecs "managed to maintain numerous fundamental beliefs and practices" related to internal business affairs and trade, something which Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a soldier in Hernando Cortez's conquering army, explained as "far richer and more grandiose than any community we have ever beheld in our own home country" of Spain (Berdan, 57).

The natural environment of Mesoamerica is quite unique as compared with the rest of Mexico and upper Central America and its qualities go a very long way toward explaining how the Aztecs and other Mesoamerican Indian tribes managed to create and maintain such an amazing civilization for almost two thousand years. As Ross Hassig points out, the close approximation "of many diverse environmental zones encouraged communication and much trade and exchange among various groups" which made it possible for many settlements to obtain and utilize a wide variety of goods and materials (156). For the Aztecs, these environmental zones allowed them to create innovations in farming which were carried out as a result of two important developments that came about before the Spanish Conquest -- first, an explosion in population, and second, the expansion of the Aztec city-state and Aztec Empire itself. Undoubtedly, these two major changes resulted in new methods related to agriculture which then filtered down and affected Aztec demographics, politics, business and trade. By the time of the arrival of the Spanish in 1519, central Mexico and the Aztecs themselves "had been transformed into a social and cultural landscape filled with villages, towns and cities" which set the path toward Aztec business practices and related trading systems (Berdan, 78).

Like many other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Aztecs relied heavily upon a variety of markets and business merchants to transport goods and commodities from the producer to the consumer. In this instance, the word "markets" does not connote what we today refer to as global and/or national markets, such as a country like Japan producing and marketing automobiles, televisions and audio equipment. Thus, "markets" refers to a physical space, such as a marketplace or agora as found in ancient Greece where buyers and sellers came together to exchange goods and services under the auspices of the reigning king or emperor.

Almost every single Aztec settlement, whether a small village or a large, densely populated city like Tenochtitlan, possessed a marketplace where the business of selling and buying took place on a weekly basis, much like our contemporary work week of five days

Hassig, 143). As strange as it may seem, the sheer volume of goods and commodities that moved through these Aztec markets were tremendous, but unlike today's markets which are closely watched by economists and national/international governments, the "efficiency and success of the Aztec market system related to distributing goods and commodities saved the state from having to monitor exchange activities" and instead allowed the state to focus on more pressing issues, such as crime and punishment and religious/sacrificial activities (Hassig, 159).

By far, the largest marketplace in Aztec Mesoamerica was located in the city of Tlatelolco, the so-called "twin city of Tenochtitlan." According to Richard Hooker, this city "consisted of a large number of priests and craftspeople" and the "bulk of the economy rested on extensive trade of both necessary and luxury items." Tenochtitlan was also "a true urban center" with a permanent population and a huge, bustling market, estimated by the Spanish conquerors of 1519 to have been made up of at least 60,000 people, a place which undoubtedly symbolized in Mesoamerica "the beginnings of a true economic class" ("Civilizations in America," Internet). The best description of this market comes from Cortez himself:

The city has many open squares in which markets are continuously run and held and the general business of buying and selling proceeds without cessation. Every kind of merchandise such as may be met with in every land is for sale there, whether food, ornaments of gold and silver and lead, brass, copper, precious stones, snails and feathers. All kinds of vegetables may also be found there... Many different sorts of fruit... all kinds of cotton thread in various colors... There is nothing to be found in all the land which is not sold in these markets..." (Van Tuerenhout, 139).

Of course, where markets exist, so do merchants and sellers and for the Aztecs, the occupation of merchant was very important, not only from a social perspective but also from a business perspective" (Berdan, 197). These merchants have often been described as "non-guild merchant middlemen or tlanecuilo which can be translated as retailer or merchant or those who brought in the necessities of life rather than glitzy luxury items" for the wealthy and well-to-do in Aztec society (Berdan, 196). In terms of cultural/societal superiority, the pochteca were full-time professional merchants and sellers that occupied a special status in Aztec society, one that was lower than the Aztec nobility but higher than most ordinary commoners. The business activities of these professional merchants included trade expeditions inside and outside of the Aztec Empire and foreign service for the Aztec emperor.

Although some of the activities related to these high-standing merchants were done directly for the Aztec state, "the bulk of their transactions were privately motivated and financed," much like a business person in today's modern world who owns and operates an independent business entity (Hassig, 186).

These pochteca merchants also were members of guilds with closely controlled hereditary memberships and were located in a small number of city-states, major political/social capitals like Tenochtitlan and Texcoco and active economic centers like Otumba and Xochimilco. Some of the goods and commodities traded by these merchants included highly-elaborate pieces of clothing for religious purposes, tropical birds and feathers, objects of gold, necklaces, bowls, obsidian blades and knives, animal fur and skins and even slaves, most of whom were either captured in war or had committed crimes against the state or had been sold into slavery by their parents (Hooker, "Civilizations in America," Internet).

As to the regional merchants, the tlanecuilo, we have much less information on their everyday practices as compared to the pochteca. As Ross Hassig relates, these middlemen merchants could be found at every marketplace in the Aztec Empire and traded a wide variety of goods and commodities, mostly foodstuffs and utilitarian items. These items included cacao, maize or corn, tortillas, fish, salt, cotton, bowls, baskets and various types of wood (165). Most of these types of merchants specialized in specific kinds of goods and commodities, much like a business owner of today who sells clothing, furniture or household goods.

However, unlike today's merchants, the Aztecs did not have money as we know it today in the form of coins or paper currency. Thus, all of the buying and selling in the marketplace was "carried out by bartering one good for another or exchanges were made with cacao beans and common textiles" (Berdan, 214). One reason for cacao beans being used as a form of currency was because they are the main ingredient in chocolate which the Aztecs and other Mesoamerican Indian tribes viewed as a luxury item. Cacao beans were also very costly, due to having to be carried for long distances from the Mexican lowlands.

The use of cacao beans was apparently quite widespread in the Aztec Empire and because they were so economically important, some unscrupulous merchants went so far as to "remove the outer skins of the beans and stuff them with dirt or sawdust and then mix them in with real beans" as a way of increasing their supplies (Berdan, 215). These counterfeiters were often severely punished for this deceit by the state in the form of having their hands cut off or even death.

For other purchases, Aztec merchants bartered with what is known as quachtli or cotton capes made in various sizes. If a family was too poor to afford this item, they were allowed to weave their own as part of their everyday domestic cloth production. Obviously, the Aztecs could not simply walk into a store and purchase clothing, for everything they wore had to be made at home or by specialized merchants. This form of clothing could also serve as tribute payment for the Aztec nobles,… READ MORE

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