Excerpt via Thesis:
Also, these kinds of cotton capes were so valuable that the family or individual lucky enough to own 20 or more may support themselves for an entire year in the city of Tenochtitlan; these pelisses could also be utilized to barter for much more expensive items like gold earrings and necklaces made from jade (Van Tuerenhout, 184).
Of all the goods that have been available in the Aztec market segments, two were of main importance to get the people of the empire, being obsidian and ceramics. Due to its excellent reducing abilities and the large number of rotor blades that could be designed from a single core, obsidian, also known as black volcanic a glass, was one of the most valued and widely-traded products in the Aztec Empire. Section of the explanation just for this is that the Aztecs lacked precious metals like straightener and had not any knowledge pertaining to the smelting of straightener ore. Whilst they did possess ability to smelt copper ore and to make dureté, these metals did not carry a sharp border and used out in short order. But obsidian, with its really keen edge, was used intended for various functions, such as to get cutting cloth, wood and other naturally-occurring elements. Obsidian was also intended for cutting foodstuff and various meats and was often used in religious events involving the dismemberment of human being sacrifices to the Aztec gods. As to ceramics, various home items like blending bowls, plates and even ingesting utensils were made from the considerable supply of unique types of clay seen in almost all parts of the Aztec Empire. Almost all ceramic products, with the exception of these made in the property, were made by highly-skilled art makers who often went their businesses as a kind of store with their goods on display for all potential buyers (Van Tuerenhout, 217).
In 1987, Frederic Hicks printed an extensive document related to proof to support the usage of an economic version to the Aztec civilization. Fundamentally, Hicks states that the Aztec economy prior to the entrance of the The spanish language conquerors was on the edge of a market-integrated system, similar in characteristics to many current national and international marketplace economies. On this page, Hicks traces four fundamental requirements necessary to achieve this economy.
Initial, the presence of full-time specialists whom do not produce their own food, i. at the., the pochteca; second, arsenic intoxication people who produce the basic necessities of lifestyle, i. elizabeth., the common retailers; third, an industry economy which in turn brings the specialists and the common vendors together, and fourth, the presence of a state to take care of order and also to provide components for question resolution, my spouse and i. e., the Aztec nobility and monarchy. Clearly, Hicks was on the right course, for the Aztecs did indeed have got all of these characteristics with the conceivable exception of some type of program which integrated all of the market segments into a single entity (Van
Tuerenhout, 84).
In summary, the various economical systems and business procedures related to the Aztec civilization seem to have the ability to worked together “in a dynamic and complex economy that brought the Aztec Empire into one economic, interpersonal and ethnic unit” (Hassig, 234) although the Aztecs were a somewhat ancient society as compared to what was taking place in Spain throughout the early years from the 16th hundred years. From an economic standpoint, the growing population of the Aztecs made the increased creation of meals mandatory plus the craftsmen who produced the products and products for the market required merchants like the pochteca to sell all their goods, much like this business owners who also rely upon constant customers.
This market system, even though primitive, was your primary link that allowed the various marketplace sectors and regions to come together to create an immensely dynamic economic system. An added bonus is that this system achieved it possible for the standard person/consumer to get ahead financially, perhaps an early example of entrepreneurship. Thus, while Francis Berdan sees it, the Aztec economy using its merchants and business people was highly commercialized and powerful; however , it absolutely was not what we now call a capitalist economy, intended for there was not any paid labor and area was not bought and sold as a asset (256). Essentially, the Aztecs, despite living and working in some of the most difficult environments of Mesoamerica before and after the The spanish language Conquest, managed to prosper within system of fairness and equal rights based upon commonly-shared needs like food, clothing and different household goods even with the presence of a stiff system of hierarchical social classes.
Works Cited
Berdan, Francis. The Aztecs of Central Mexico: A great Imperial Culture. New York:
Holt, Rinehart Winston, 1982.
Hassig, Ross. Trade, Tribute and Transportation: The Sixteenth Hundred years Political Overall economy of the Historical Aztecs. Grettle: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993.
Hooker, Richard. “Civilizations in America: The Mexica Aztecs. ” mil novecentos e noventa e seis. Internet.
Retrieved October 5, 2008 at http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CIVAMRCA/AZTECS.HTM.
Truck Tuerenhout, D R.
