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Pochteca (singular pochtecatl) were professional, long-distance traveling merchants in the Aztec Empire. The trade or commerce was referred to as pochtecayotl. Within the empire, the pochteca performed three primary duties: market management, international trade, and acting as market intermediaries domestically. [1]
The Aztecs [a] (/ ˈ æ z t ɛ k s / AZ-teks) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to the 16th centuries.
The word Aztec in modern usage would not have been used by the people themselves. It has variously been used to refer to the Aztecs or Triple Alliance, the Nahuatl-speaking people of central Mexico prior to the Spanish conquest, or specifically the Mexica ethnicity of the Nahuatl-speaking tribes (from tlaca). [7]
The market of Ocotero was the main commercial center where, according to some authors, more than 20 thousand went every day to trade for products such as cocoa and cotton blankets brought by the Mayans. Due to their bad relationship with Tlaxcala, the Aztecs tried to prevent their trading with the regions nearby the Gulf of Mexico. [6]
The trade market of the Aztec people was not only important to commerce, but also to the socialization, as the markets provided a place for the people to exchange information within their regions. This type of trade market was used primarily for locally produced goods, as there was not much traveling needed to exchange goods at the market.
Only the Aztec archenemies of Tlaxcala, Huexotzinco, and the Purépecha remained undefeated, as well as the Mixtec kingdoms of Tututepec and Yopitzinco which did not interest the Aztecs. Thus the Aztec Empire had its largest geographical extent when the Spaniards arrived in 1519.
The Aztecs valued the Maya for their ability to produce and trade a variety of different commodities, and because of this, the Aztecs did not feel the need to conquer the Maya. [15] Trade facilitated the blending of diverse cultural elements, leading to the emergence of new cultural identities.
Aztec slaves were a vehicle for moving around the societal hierarchy. José Luis de Rojas, the author of Tenochtitlan: Capital of the Aztec Empire, states that one of the most respected positions an Aztec commoner could obtain was the role of “tealtiani" or the person responsible for the cleansing of slaves before sacrifice. [8]