ECONOMY OF THE AZTECS OR MEXICA: CHARACTERISTICS AND ACTIVITIES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The economy of the Aztecs was based on three aspects: agricultural goods, commerce and tributes. Of these three factors, trade was crucial for the empire, since it allowed the arrival of goods to all cities, even if they were not produced in the same territory. This civilization developed a very complete and orderly trading system, with a great diversity of products in its market.

For example, if a person wanted food, they could buy meat, fish, turkeys, rabbits, birds, or any other source of protein. If you wanted vegetables you could buy tomatoes, corn or hot peppers, even spices for seasoning. In addition to this, there was ready-made food to purchase, such as corn bread, drinks, and cakes.

Image recovered from socialhizo.com.

This shows that unlike other ancient economies, the Aztec trading system was not based on barter. The Aztecs had money to purchase all the goods that might be needed.

Monetary system in the Aztec economic organization

Money was not as it is conceived today. In the Aztec world, one of the currencies used was cocoa beans.

You could also exchange cotton cloths known as quachtli, very precious to the Aztecs, since cotton could not be grown in the altitude of the Valley of Mexico and had to be imported from semi-tropical regions located to the south.

For example, a rabbit could cost 30 cocoa beans, and an egg 3 cocoa beans. But a cotton cloth was in the range between 65 and 300 cocoa beans.

Growth of the Aztec economy

From its beginnings, the main city of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlán, could be self-sustaining. Being a small town, agriculture was developed through the chinampa method that was used throughout Mesoamerica.

Cultivation system: chinampa

Chinampa in Xochimilco. Gael Simon / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

In this cultivation system, reeds are located in the most superficial areas of the lakes that are then covered with earth. The chinampa cultivation method, although primitive, was effective. The Aztecs did not have sophisticated tools, and used only stakes to move the soil and make their plantations.

These floating gardens, which were the backbone of the Aztec agricultural system, can still be found in Mexico City.

The economy of the Aztecs was sustained in an important way in agriculture and farming. Aztec farmers grew beans, avocados, tobacco, peppers, squash, hemp, but mainly corn.

Despite their rudimentary farming systems, Aztec farmers produced enough food to supply not only the needs of their city, but of the entire population. This is why trade with other sectors began to expand, becoming a fundamental activity in the Aztec civilization.

The importance of the market in Aztec culture

In Aztec markets, not only were cash crops found, but various other goods and services were also offered. These include raw materials such as cotton, feathers, precious and semi-precious stones, coral and pearls.

Also finished products, wood, jewelry and even medicines or medicinal plants were sold for the healers. Other common items for sale were clothing, obsidian knives, plates, leather work, shoes, baskets, and pots. Even in some places they could cut hair.

Fresco showing the economic activity of barter in the Tlatelolco market. FáOsorio13 / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

However, as the population began to increase, the economy of Tenochtitlán began to depend heavily on economic support from surrounding areas.

A large number of people in Tenochtitlán were farmers, who got up at dawn and returned home in the afternoon, after working in the fields all day. Thus, agricultural goods were always found in cities.

A large number of priests and artisans also lived in the main area of ​​the city, since each calpulli that made up the cities was characterized by developing an exclusive handicraft technique, such as making garments or pottery in ceramics.

In this way, Tenochtitlán began to become a true urban center, with a permanent population, a large and bustling market, and the beginnings of an economic class.

Markets and merchants

Aztec merchants played an important role in the market economy in the Aztec empire, as they were essential for trade with other neighboring cities. The articles were sold by artisans and farmers, being the tlamaconi the merchants specialized in daily trade and of little volume.

Others acted as merchants traveling from one city to another, buying and selling goods, as well as helping spread the news throughout the Aztec Empire. They are known as pochteca.

Recreation of the Aztec market of Tlatelolco. Joe Ravi / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

In this way, markets were not only places of exchange, but also spaces for information, socialization and doing business.

Each Aztec city had its own market located in the center of the city. The largest market in the empire was in Tlatelolco, Tenochtitlán's sister city. In this market every day 60,000 people were.

These regional markets were supervised by government trade officials, who ensured that the goods and prices ordered by them were fair. In addition, the officers collected tributes and taxes in the markets.

There were four levels of regional markets: the largest market was Tlatelolco, then there were the markets of Xochimilco and Texcoco and the daily markets of all the other Aztec cities and small towns.

Pochteca or traveling merchants

As we mentioned earlier, trade was fundamental to the Aztec empire and merchants were in a privileged position in society, even though their social class was lower than the nobility.

These traveling merchants were known as pochteca, and they had control of the markets during the Aztec empire by exchanging articles and goods from very remote places, which could not be obtained in the same cities.

Pochtecas loading. Unknown author / Public domain

Their trips were long and demanding and if they had to cross water courses, the use of canoes was common. Some Pochteca acted as importers, others as sellers, and still others as negotiators in the sale of goods.

The Pochtecas fulfilled a double or triple role in the Aztec empire, in addition to exercising the role of simple merchants. They used to communicate important information from one area of ​​the empire to another. Some even served as spies for the emperor, sometimes disguised as something other than a salesman.

A special group of Pochtecas were called Naualoztomeca, who specialized in eccentric goods, such as gems, various types of feathers and even secrets.

farming

Like many previous and later aboriginal civilizations, agriculture was a fundamental pillar in the development of both an economic and a social system.

The Aztecs took advantage of the natural qualities that the Valley of Mexico offered them to domesticate land and crops, and thus guarantee constant production over the years.

The territory where they were found presented all kinds of accidents and elevations, from hills, lagoons and swamps.

Diversity of varieties of corn, one of the foods most worked by the Aztecs. Source:

The Aztecs had to engineer and implement drainage and terracing techniques to ensure optimal crop distribution, as well as their maintenance. Through these techniques, the Aztecs were also able to cope with times of drought.

The more than 80,000 square kilometers of the Valley of Mexico were used by the Aztecs for cultivation; in the same way, they came to build alternative methods such as floating gardens, which yielded more than 12,000 hectares of arable land. They also took advantage of the use of vegetable and animal manure for fertilization.

As was customary in Mesoamerica, the main crop product was corn, considered the essential element of the Aztec diet, not to mention the divine and ceremonial implications attributed to it.

The Aztecs also cultivated products such as chili, tomato, beans, chia, and squash.

Hunting, livestock and fishing

In the Aztec Empire, hunting products were poor, but not non-existent. The difficulties of the terrain and the absence of domesticable species made it difficult to develop hunting as a frequent activity.

The main domesticated species for their consumption were the turkey and the dog.

Fishing, on the other hand, brought better results for the economy and the livelihood of the empire. They took advantage of the presence of aquatic birds and lagoon fish that allowed them to vary the diet.

Similarly, from the aquatic bodies the Aztecs were able to extract other resources, such as salt and basalt, for the manufacture of ornaments.

Closer to the mountainous regions, obsidian was the main resource mined for the manufacture of weapons and tools.

Production of handicrafts and ceramics

The design and construction of clay and ceramic pieces served the Aztecs as one of the main products for cultural and commercial exchange with other communities.

The making of ornaments was one of the main trade forts for the Aztecs, even on the eve of the Spanish conquest.

The Valley of Mexico offered all the possibilities for the proliferation and development of trade and exchange routes.

In this original painting we can get an idea of ​​the garments that could be purchased in the Aztec markets. By don Antonio de Mendoza (Codice mendocino), via Wikimedia Commons

Archaeological studies have found a large number of ceramic vestiges scattered around the territory, many of them with Aztec characteristics.

Like other Mesoamerican civilizations, the production of these objects was intended to guarantee the presence of the Aztec culture in different portions of the territory.

Producing these elements also sought to take advantage of objects received from other communities for a much more nurtured cultural development.

Some studies indicate that Aztec ceramics could reach far beyond the Valley of Mexico, even to some regions of South America.

Tributes

Reconstruction of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. Source: search.creativecommons.org

The payment of tributes was a common activity within the Aztec Empire, to keep the economic flow organized within the main cities, and to generate and administer the necessary resources for the royal and ceremonial activities that used to be celebrated.

The tributes were also obligatory for all those towns that were dominated or conquered by the Aztecs, and they were paid through the objects considered most valuable.

Themes of interest

Aztec religion.

Aztec calendar.

List of Aztec gods.

Aztec architecture.

Aztec literature.

Aztec sculpture.

Aztec art.

References

1. Aztec economy and trade. Recovered from projecthistoryteacher.com.
2. Aztec economy trade and currency. Recovered from legendsandchronicles.com.
3. Recovered from aztec.com.
4. Aztec economy: Regional markets and long distance trade. Recovered from historyonthenet.com.
5. Aztec economy. Recovered from aztec-history.net.
6. What was the aztec economy? How did it function? Recovered from quora.com.
7. Aztec Civilization. Recovered from allabouthistory.org.