COMMERCE, TRADE, AND MONETARY UNITS 

 OF THE MAYA^ 



By Fkans Blom 



INTRODUCTION 



On his fourth voyage Cohimbus reached the Bay Islands in the 

 Gulf of Honduras, and while his brother, Bartolome, was sent ashore 

 to explore the island called Guanaja, Christopher saw coming from 

 the west a large dugout canoe, manned by 25 Indians. Over the cen- 

 ter of the canoe was a canopy, under which was seated the owner. 

 The rowers came alongside the admiral's ship, and he had the 

 natives — men, women, and children — brought aboard. 



They were timid and proper people, because wlien one pnlled their clothing 

 they immediately covered themselves again, which gave great satisfaction to the 

 admiral and those with him. He treated them with great kindness, and pre- 

 sented them with some objects from Castille in exchange for some of their 

 strange-looking things, to take with him in order to show what kind of people he 

 had discovered. * * * (Columbus, Bartolome, in Harrisse, 1866.)^ 



The canoe was 8 feet wide. They had in it much clothing of the kind which 

 they weave of cotton in this land, such us cloth woven with many designs and 

 colors, shirts which reached the knees, and some square pieces of cloth which 

 they use for cloaks, calling them zuyeu ; knives of flint, swords of very strong 

 wood with knives of flint set along the edges, and foodstuff of the country. 

 (Oviedo y Valdes, 1S51, 1853.) 



They had copper hatchets also, and little bells made of the same 

 material, beans of cacao, which they prized highly, and a fermented 

 drink of maize. 



The admiral had a long conference with the chief of the natives, 

 apparently a merchant of importance, and he learned that to the west 

 was a great land called " Maiam " or " Yucatan." These natives 

 were of higher culture and better equipped than those encountered by 

 the Spaniards on the islands of the West Indies. 



1 Address to the joint session of sections H, K, and I, of tiie American Association 

 for the Advancoment of Science, meeting at New Orleans, December 1931. Reprinted 

 by permission from Middle American Research Series, Publ. no. 4, " Middle American 

 Papers ", the Tulane University of Louisiana, l'J32. 



* Names and dates in parentheses refer to bibliography at end of paper. 



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