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545 N o t e s o f M i d d l e A m e r i c a n A r c h a e o l o g y a n d E t h n o l o g y Carnegie Institution of Washington Division of Historical Research No. 128 November 1956 Notes on the Use of Cacao in Middle America J. Eric S. Thompson CACAo AS CUrreNCy AND ArTICle oF TrIbUTe Cacao was an important article of trade and of tribute , largely because conditions favorable for its cultivation are not found in many parts of Middle America, for it requires a damp climate, shelter, and low altitude. Large areas, such as the Mexican plateau , the highlands of Guatemala, and Yucatan, are unsuitable. Typical of its importance in commerce are statements that Yucatan exchanged salt, cotton textiles, and slaves for the cacao of Tabasco and Veracruz (Tozzer 1941:94–95) and of Honduras (Oviedo y Valdes 1851–1855, Bk. 32, Ch. 8). Much cacao was shipped in ancient times from Soconusco to the Mexican plateau, and even from Guatemala (Sahagun 1938, Bk. 10, Ch. 13). With the decline in the Soconusco plantations, a few decades after the Spanish conquest, more cacao was brought to Mexico from Guatemala (Ponce 1875:1:293; Vasquez de Espinosa 1942, §638). Merchants went from Xiu territory to the Rio Hondo and Bacalar to buy cacao, which probably came from the banks of the New River or even the Belize River (Roys, in press). As an article of tribute, cacao is prominent in the tribute list of Codex Mendoza. Soconusco paid 400 loads to the Aztec confederacy (Codex Mendoza 1938:47), The total from all provinces was 980 loads each year (Molins Fábrega, 1954–1955). According to Lopez de Cogolludo (1867–1868, Bk. 4, Ch. 3), the scant tribute paid to Mayapan in its period of dominance included cacao sent by the area that produced it. Unless Chetumal, a large producer of cacao, was INTroDUCTIoN CacaoattractedthekeeninterestofthefirstSpaniards to reach Middle America partly because of its importance as a beverage, partly because of the unusual method of cultivation dependent on the shade-giving “mother” tree, but principally because it was to Europeans, forgetful of the ‘origin of the Latin petunia , that novelty, a perishable currency. Thus, in one of the earliest (1525) accounts of the fruit we meet with a philosophical attitude: “But it is very needful to heare what happie money they use, for they have money, which I call happy, because for the greedie desire and gaping to attaine the same, the bowelles of the earth are not rent a sunder, nor through the ravening greedinesse of covetous men, nor terrour of warres assayling, it returneth to the dennes and caves of the mother earth, as golden, or silver money doth. For this groweth upon trees” (Martyr 1612, Dec. 8, Ch. 4). There are many accounts in sixteenth- and seventeenth -century writings of the cultivation of cacao and of the preparation of chocolate. One of the best is that of Oviedo y Valdes, written before 1555 (1851–55, Bk. 8, Ch. 30). Thomas Gage (1677:238), the renegade Dominican friar who lived in Mexico and Guatemala from 1625 to 1637, has left a lengthy account in well flavored English of the period. In all discussions of cacao it is essential to distinguish between the pod and the individual bean, of which there are nearly thirty in each pod The usual Spanish name for the pod is mazorca used also for an ear of maize); the bean is called almendra almond). J. eric S. thompSon 546 subject to Mayapan, as Roys believes, this must have been the Province of Cupul, where a certain amount of cacao was grown in the many cenotes in that region (Sanchez de Aguilar 1892:98); northwest Yucatan appears to be too dry for its successful cultivation. Traditionally, the migrating ancestors of the Cakchiquel paid cacao as tribute to Tula, whence they had migrated (Annals of the Cakchiquels 1953:48). In colonial times cacao continued to be an article of tribute (Relation de Zapotitlan 1579). In Tabasco alone the 1660 Indian tributaries who had survived the Spanish conquest and its accompanying plagues paid annually about 1500 loads of cacao to their new masters, considerably more than the Aztec confederacy received from all its tributaries (Relaciones de Yucatan 1898–1900:11:330–41). There is no published information on the worth of cacao in pre-Colombian times, but...

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