Pochteca
The Pochteca ( Sg . : Pochtecatl ) were long-distance trade merchants among the Aztecs who had a special position in Aztec society.
The well-developed economic and trading system of the Aztecs was to a large extent dependent on these long-distance trade merchants, who were therefore of enormous importance for the respective Aztec rulers. It was a hereditary social group that was hierarchically structured and had its own religious rituals. The main task of the Pochteca was to exchange and trade luxury goods such as cocoa , cotton fabrics , quetzal feathers, jade , turquoises or furs . The pre-Columbian long - distance trading system in Mesoamerica was mainly based on exchange - however, standardized luxury exchange goods developed that served as money substitutes, such as B. the valuable cocoa beans or the cotton fabrics ( Quachtli ).
The Pochteca were often used by their rulers as inconspicuous spies and news transmitters and also functioned as a means of communication between the various Aztec rulers.
Transporting the exchanged goods was not easy, as the Aztecs, like all other Native Americans, were unknown to the wheel. Thus, the Pochteca covered the whole distance on foot, which sometimes meant a journey of several months, as the distances between the main cultivation areas and the transshipment points could be between 200 and 800 kilometers. In addition, they were occasionally involved in arguments and fights with other peoples.
Overall, there were in the Aztec empire twelve Pochteca guilds, each in one of the Aztec cities of that time was located: Azcapotzalco , Chalco , Coatlichan , Cuautitlan , Huexotla , Huitzilopocho , Mixcoac , Otompan , Tenochtitlan , Tlatelolco , Texcoco and Xochimilco .
Much of what we know today about the pochteca comes from Bernardino de Sahagún , who reports in great detail on the pochteca in the Codex Florentinus .
literature
- Bernardino de Sahagún : Historia General De Las Cosas De Nueva Espana , Giunti Gruppo Editoriale, original 1569, ISBN 88-09-01021-3
- Peter Tschohl: The Pochtekenbericht in Sahaguns "Historia General" , Verlag Mann, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-7861-2290-3
- Rudolf van Zantwijk: The Aztec Arrangement. The Social History of Pre-Spanish Mexico , Norman: University of Oklahoma Press (1985), pp. 125-177: Ch. 7, The Social and Economic Development of the Aztec Merchants; Ch. 8, Ritual and Ceremonial Organization of the Merchants and Other Vocational Groups.
