Maya Aztec Trade

(Background information)
The Maya began trading on the Yucatan sometimes around 600 A.D. Over the next
300 years, they developed elaborate system of trade that was based on the
seacoast. Also, the Mayans built towns and parts near naturally protected bays.
The most popular trade items were salt, cotton, spices, feathers, and cacao.
The marketplace of an Aztec or Mayan city of central or southern Mexico and
northern Central America was the pulse of these Meso-American cultures. In
major Aztec cities, up to 60,000 people would crowd the markets several times
weekly. Vegetables (maize was the predominant food of the masses), fruits, copper
axes, feathers, and even specially prepared puppies which were considered
delectable edibles, were offered for trade.
Busy Mayan markets also featured cocoa beans, shells, salt, fish, animal skins, and
cotton cloth. In both cultures cocoa beans served as a version of small change to
equal out trade transactions. However, in the Mayan civilization some dishonest
traders mastered counterfeit cocoa beans. Husks were removed from shells and
filled with sand. The false beans were then mixed in with the real cocoa beans.

Review Questions

What were some products that originated in farm fields?

What is the body of water between Asia and Alaska, which is where the first
American crossed during the Ice Age?
How did the agricultural revolution begin in America?
How did the Olmec and Maya use their geographical locations to develop trade?
What was the main advantage of living in a tropical rain forest?
How did the Maya treat enslaved people?
How did Cortes conquer the Aztec?
How did Pizarro defeat the Inca?
Why did Spanish conquistadors go to South America?
How did Europeans change the bitter tasting drink made from the cacao bean?
How did the status of Native Americans changed after the arrival of Europeans?
Why were the conquistadors sent to the Americas?

Maya Aztec Trade Vocabulary

Barter: exchange (goods or services) for other goods or services
without using money.

Marketplace: an open

space where a market

is or was formerly held in a town, and where people traded goods.

Maize: British term for corn. Maize was planted by people in MesoAmerica.

Cocoa beans: the dried seed used to make chocolate

Counterfeit: made in exact imitation of something valuable or

important with the intention to deceive or defraud.