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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Book On Pre and Post Contact Mesoamerican Trade,
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This review is from: Trade, Tribute, and Transportation: The Sixteenth-Century Political Economy of the Valley of Mexico (Civilization of the American Indian) (Paperback)
Like the other book I reviewed today, this book is the only book I could find on this subject, which I articulated as, "What was trade like before the Spanish arrived in the New World?" Specifically, I was interested in seeing the extent of trade between the Valley of Mexico and the Mayan speaking areas to the South. This book doesn't really explore that topic, but it's quite definitive on the question of trade before, during and after the Spanish conquered the Aztecs and surrounding areas.Along the way Hassig corrects what are some still common misconceptions about the relationship between the Spanish and Mesoamerica. The most interesting misconception that Hassig tackles is the idea that the Aztec Empire was somehow weak or defective, and that the weakness was intimately related to the conquest. Hassig examines the pre-Columbian history of the Aztecs and argue, persuasively, that the Aztecs were a hegemonic, rather then territorial empire. Roughly put, it's the difference between the Roman Empire and the British Monarchy- with the Aztecs being Roman. The Aztec Empire was what you call a low energy/low extraction Empire- the Aztecs required less from it's subjects and in turn expended fewer resources in maintaining their Empire. This "choice" was grounded in pre existing conditions in Mesoamerica: the geography, the lack of pack animals and reliance on human transportation and the need for the Aztecs to secure their food supply in an area where any growth in a city was cause for concern. The Aztecs were aided in their ascent by their prime position inside a cluster of lakes. The only transportation alternative for the Aztecs besides people were canoes, and the canoes could carry 50 times a human. Because the Aztecs were inside a lake, they were able to extend their economic "hinterland" from any point in the water surface. This allowed them to grow larger then competitors effectively by their combined military/location advantage. As they expanded they used merchants as advance scouts and spies. After the Conquest, the combined impact of disease and new transportation alternatives (Donkeys and wagons) the use of human carriers declined but did not stop entirely for more then a century. Hassig notes that the impact of disease preceded the Spanish conquest, so that their conquest was timed at a point when there were relatively few children (already dead from disease) and more adults (more productive, fewer family members to support) so that in the years immediately after the conquest there was relative abundance. However, as that first disease stuck generation aged, there were fewer workers and thus it was harder for the Spanish to "live off the land" per their desire.
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