Aztec merchants
Aztec merchants were called pochtecas, and they were the ones that brought in many marvelous things to the market and sold them. Some common items being golden jewelry, feather caps, tortoise shell cups, spices, and cocoa beans (chocolate). Merchant life was hard and very dangerous when traveling long distances and visiting places outside the Aztec Empire.
The merchants lived in a separate part of the city, had their own laws, and had their own temples to worship their own gods. One of these gods was Yacatecuhtli, which was the god of merchants.
The pochtecas were the ones that helped to make Tenochtitlan so rich. But even rich merchants didn't wear fancy clothes, they wore very basic clothes in public. The merchants’money was mostly spent on expensive feasts to try to impress the other merchants.
Since the merchants carried so many valuable items with them, they quietly left cities at night and had secret warehouses for storing their goods because they were afraid of thieves.
Merchants weren't just men that found and sold valuable goods. They also served as spies to the ruler of Tenochtitlan (Aztec Emperor) in the lands they visited. The pochtecas had great cover for being spies: they spoke many different languages and easily blended in with other tribes. By 1500, the merchants were as rich and powerful as the Aztec royalty.
Aztec Merchants
What were Aztec Merchants called?
What types of things did they sell?
Why was merchant life hard?
How did the merchants live differently than others? (religion, where they lived)
How did the rich merchants show off their wealth?
For many being a merchant wasn’t their only job, what else did they do? Why were they qualified?
Source: https://www.southbuffalocs.org/cms/lib/NY01001376/Centricity/Domain/17/aztecmerchants_I.doc
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