The Legacy Of The Ancient Aztec Economy As The Foundation Of Contemporary Mexican Commerce

"Rethinking the Aztec Economy provides new perspectives on the society and economy of the ancient Aztecs by focusing on goods and their patterns of circulation"--Provided by publisher.

This study explores the organization, scale, complexity, and integration of Aztec commerce across Mesoamerica at Spanish contact. The aims of the book are threefold. The first is to construct an in-depth understanding of the economic organization of precolumbian Aztec society and how it developed in the way that it did. The second is to explore the livelihoods of the individuals who bought, sold, and moved goods across a cultural landscape that lacked both navigable rivers and animal transport. Finally, this study models Aztec economy in a way that facilitates its comparison to other ancient and premodern societies around the world. What makes the Aztec economy unique is that it developed one of the most sophisticated market economies in the ancient world in a society with one of the worse transportation systems. This is the first book to provide an updated and comprehensive view of the Aztec economy in thirty years.

The Aztec Economy provides a synthesis and updated examination of the Aztec economy (1325–1521 AD). It is organized around seven components that recur with other Elements in this series: historic and geographic background, domestic economy, institutional economy, specialization, forms of distribution and commercialization, economic development, and future directions. The Aztec world was complex, hierarchical, and multifaceted, and was in a constant state of demographic growth, recoveries from natural disasters, political alignments and realignments, and aggressive military engagements. The economy was likewise complex and dynamic, and characterized by intensive agriculture, exploitation of non-agricultural resources, utilitarian and luxury manufacturing, wide-scale specialization, merchants, markets, commodity monies, and tribute systems.

When most people think of the word “economy,” they think of stock markets and modern banks. However, even ancient civilizations had their own economies. Readers discover fun and fascinating facts about the ancient Aztec economy through informative text designed to support social studies curricula. Detailed photographs and historical images, such as primary sources, are included to enhance the text and keep readers engaged as they learn. Economics and history come together in an amazing way to ensure readers gain a comprehensive understanding of the ancient Aztec economy.

This study explores the organization, scale, complexity, and integration of Aztec commerce across Mesoamerica at Spanish contact. The aims of the book are threefold. The first is to construct an in-depth understanding of the economic organization of precolumbian Aztec society and how it developed in the way that it did. The second is to explore the livelihoods of the individuals who bought, sold, and moved goods across a cultural landscape that lacked both navigable rivers and animal transport. Finally, this study models Aztec economy in a way that facilitates its comparison to other ancient and premodern societies around the world. What makes the Aztec economy unique is that it developed one of the most sophisticated market economies in the ancient world in a society with one of the worse transportation systems. This is the first book to provide an updated and comprehensive view of the Aztec economy in thirty years.

The "Brief and Summary Relation of the Lords of New Spain" is one of the major contemporary accounts of the economic, political, and social impact of the conquest of Aztec Mexico. Written by Alonso de Zorita, a Spanish judge of high integrity and many years' experience in colonial administration, it provides a detailed description of Aztec life before and after the Conquest. Based on Zorita's stay in Mexico from 1556 to 1566, it reflects the anguish felt by a devoted and humane servant of the Crown, who observed the misery inflicted upon the Indians by enslavement and Spanish-imposed tribute and labor systems In his extensive introduction, Benjamin Keen provides a survey of the rise of Aztec society, conditions under post-Conquest colonial administration, and a biographical essay on Zoritas life and the reception of his work. With a new preface on recent scholarship and issues in Zorita's work, this edition remains the standard translation in English of the "Brief Relation."

Aztec Culture It was a culture like no other in North America. Where other tribes were nomadic the Aztec built cities of thousands and suburbs with a large agriculture. They had beautiful gardens with plants from all over their world. Mexico was a city like no other: paved streets, stone buildings, and large pyramids with temples on top. It had a zoo and an aviary with many birds. It had tanks with both fresh and saltwater for fish. But it had no wagons and no beasts of burden. Montezuma had subjected most all of the towns around, many with several thousand Indians. In the end, this proved to be his undoing as these tribes, after losing in battle, quickly made league with the Spanish conquerors. Yet for all their science their religion was totally barbaric. They believed their god, a white man, would one day return, which left them open to the Spanish conqueror. Then, they offered human sacrifices and even cannibalism, a horrible practice. They were a proud people, in the end refusing to give up until many were dead from starvation. The most advanced civilization in North America ultimately fell to the sword of the Spanish and the Conquest.

Students are taught that the Aztecs were destroyed by Hernán Cortéz, the conqueror of Mexico. However, there is much to learn about who the Aztec people were before they were conquered. The native Mexicans were part of a rich and vibrant culture that spanned hundreds of years. To understand this complicated society, readers are provided with an engaging main text and colorful photographs and historical images. Informative sidebars throughout detail the long history, and sudden defeat, of the Aztec Empire.