The mayan economy it was very similar to that of many other civilizations with a contemporary level of development to this one. They did not have a common type of currency or monetary exchange system, but their activities were based mainly on the exchange of objects of interest between groups.
Studies of the Mayan economy go beyond simple perishable goods, such as food or agricultural products. The Mayans also used jewelry and valuable clothing in their commercial activities. As the Mayan cities acted as city-states (similar to the Greek polis), the exchange systems were quite complex..
Article index
The Mayan Empire had large agricultural systems, which were fully organized and capable of producing the necessary amount of food to feed the entire empire. The organization and scale of their crops was similar to that used by the ancient Egyptians in their daily life.
Usually, the Mayans cultivated corn together with grains, as the plants generated nutritional supplements that helped to grow other foods. The cultivation of cassava, pumpkins, potatoes, tobacco, cotton, vanilla and cocoa was also very common in this civilization..
However, the presence of forests and swamps presented a major drawback that stood in the way of agriculture. To solve the problem generated by these biomes, the Mayans developed a series of cultivation techniques.
The Mayans used a method of harvesting called "cut and burn." This method consisted of cutting the vegetation in a specific area, burning it and using the ashes as fertilizer for other seeds to grow..
When the land began to lose fertility, the Mayans turned this area into a garden and waited for it to become a forest again to repeat the process; meanwhile, they relocated their crops to another area.
Another popular method among Mayan farmers was the creation of terraced fields in areas with land elevations. The use of terraces helped the soil not to erode; in addition, it made the plants collect more rainwater when there was rainfall.
The terrace systems used by the Maya were by no means simple; in fact there were several types of terraces used by farmers.
The Mayan Empire was the first Mesoamerican civilization to use raised fields for its crops. These were common in areas where the soil was naturally hydrated, which meant that only strips needed to be excavated throughout the growing area for water to flow through..
These channels had a problem: they required a lot of maintenance. The flow of water caused the soil to create obstructions in each strip, which did not allow the water to reach all the crops.
The Mayans did not use metal tools to cultivate, but it is known that one of the main instruments they used was the planter. His planters were quite simple: they consisted of a wooden stick with a sharp point. They were used to create holes in the earth, and in these the seeds were planted to later be harvested..
The Mayan civilization did not use money to trade, unlike the European civilizations of the time. However, there were many objects that they considered valuable and used to reach commercial exchange agreements for other products.
Among these were the seeds of various plants, obsidian, gold, and salt. The value of each of these products varied according to each city. One of the factors that affected the value of each product was the distance of the "buyer" with the origin of each one: the more distance the merchant traveled, the more substantial the exchange had to be..
The exchange of goods could be of various types, but normally food was used. Food was traded for clothing, material goods such as gold or even for other types of food that were not available in a particular region..
The type of trade that was practiced in this civilization was the free market. Everyone was free to give a value to their products, and whoever was interested in obtaining them decided or not if the value was in accordance with what they were willing to pay..
Each person grew their own food on their land, but ordinary people usually only grew crops to feed their family and not to trade. In addition, in the largest cities the government of each one had economic and exchange controls, which limited the value of each object in the market.
Although the Mayans did not have a currency per se, each object had a value depending on how common it was. This applied mainly to food: the more difficult to obtain a type of consumer product, the more objects could be received in exchange for it..
During the origins of civilization metallurgy was not used. This means that no exchange of metal products was used until 600 BC. C.
The Mayan populations were connected to each other by means of stone paths. These created complex routes that spread throughout Mesoamerica. Roads usually did not exceed 100 kilometers in length, but exchanges of goods occurred at greater distances.
The Mayans even created export systems to cities located in the southern regions of Central America, where Guatemala and El Salvador are now located. The most common method of transportation was the use of slaves.
The island-dwelling populations used canoes to trade goods with those who lived on the mainland. The products they brought from the sea were usually high in price, and fish preserved with salt was one of the most precious goods..
Yet No Comments