Aztec society - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2013. Aztec society - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_society. [Accessed 16 October 2013].
Empires Past: Aztecs: Trade, Economy and Merchants. 2013. Empires Past: Aztecs: Trade, Economy and Merchants. http://library.thinkquest.org/16325/y-eco.html. [Accessed 16 October 2013].
The Aztec Trading System - Yahoo Voices - voices.yahoo.com. 2013. The Aztec Trading System - Yahoo Voices - voices.yahoo.com http://voices.yahoo.com/the-aztec-trading-system-735197.html. [Accessed 16 October 2013].
Welcome to the Aztec Civilization Website. 2013. Welcome to the Aztec Civilization Website. http://aztec.com/page.php?page=merchants. [Accessed 16 October 2013]. The Aztec society was a highly complex society which had been developed among the Aztecs in central Mexico. The society depended on a division between the nobles and free commoners. Each part was also divided into hierarchies of social status, responsibilities and power.
In Aztec culture, trade was and important part in their life. Aztecs had no metal money, however they did have a currency. One form of currency that they used was cacao beans. The Aztecs considered cacao beans as a precious substance as it was used to make chocolate. This currency was used in local markets. You could buy tools, clothes and jewellery (which were very expensive).
Another currency was rare items. Merchants traded rare items such as jewellery for other rare items like cotton, rubber and animal products like jaguar skin and tropical feathers.
Some of the items that theses merchants sold were for the ruler and his nobles, some were sold in the Aztec markets and some were traded with people from other tribes. Aztecs traded everything, rabbits, birds, dogs, fish, corn, chilli and many other foods. Aside from food, Aztecs also traded crafted goods in the markets such as pots and baskets.
Cities of tens of thousands of people couldn’t feed themselves without trade. However, Aztec trade was limited with many of their goods ending up in Tenochtitlan.
The Aztec society had been dependent on agriculture and also on warfare. This is why most of their trade had been fruit, vegetables.
Aztecs had no wagons or other vehicles for transporting their goods which is why merchants when merchants travelled south, they used canoes to transport their goods or they had slaves who carried large amounts of goods on their backs. Aztec warriors occasionally accompanied them when passing through dangerous territories. The Aztecs had wheels during that time, however they didn’t think of using wheels to make transportation easier, the wheels were only used in childrens toys.
The merchant class in the Aztec empire was a special group. They were called pochtecas. They were below the nobles (mainly priests and warriors) but they were above the common farmers. Merchant class was mostly hereditary. Merchant life was hard and dangerous when travelling long distances and visiting foreign places.
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