Adapted from: Original Article
By Christopher Minster
Updated on April 24, 2021
The Ancient Maya Trade System
The Ancient Maya people had a very good trading system. They had short, medium, and long trade routes. They also had markets where they could buy and sell many different things. Today, scientists use different ways to learn about how the Maya traded. They look at things they dig up, pictures on old pots, and study old writings.
Currency
The Maya didn't use money like we do today. They didn't have one thing that everyone agreed was worth a certain amount. Even things that were valuable, like cacao seeds (used to make chocolate), salt, obsidian (a type of rock), or gold, had different values in different places. The farther these things were from where they came from, the more valuable they became.
The Maya traded two types of things:
1. Special items: These were things like jade (a pretty green stone), gold, copper, fancy pottery, and things used in religious ceremonies. Rich Maya people used these to show they were important.
2. Everyday items: These were things people used all the time, like food, clothes, tools, simple pots, and salt.
Everyday Items
At first, Maya cities made most of their own everyday items. Most Maya people were farmers. They grew corn, beans, and squash. They used a method called slash-and-burn farming. This means they cut down trees and burned them to clear land for farming. They also made simple pottery for cooking at home or in community workshops.
Later, as Maya cities got bigger, they needed more food than they could grow. So they started trading more food. Some places made things like salt or stone tools and traded them to places that didn't have them. Some towns near the sea traded fish and other seafood.