806 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



Cacao in its wild state was well known to the early inhabitants of Mexico, 

 and it was also cultivated, although to what extent is uncertain. The use of 

 the drink made from the seeds was confined chiefly to the higher classes, but 

 the use of the seeds as money was a matter of importance to all classes, for 

 cacao seeds were the basis of the Mexican financial system. They are still 

 used locally in Mexico as a substitute for small coins. Jourdanet, in his 

 translation of Sahagun,^ gives the following account of the use of cacao as 

 currency : " It would be idle to call attention to this plant, whose fruit is so 

 widely used to-day, if it were not of interest to recall the fact that cacao was 

 unknown in Europe before the discovery of America. The Mexicans at the 

 time of the Conquest made much use of it, in various forms, none of which 

 was the equivalent of our chocolate. This precious fruit was besides, for the 

 richest among them, a means of treasuring their wealth, and a medium of 

 exchange, which facilitated commerce as does our money. This custom was 

 even extended after the Conquest in certain parts of the country, so long, in 

 fact, that I myself observed in Yucatan, before 1850, that cacao seeds were 

 used in place of copper coins. 



" It would be very difiicult to determine what was the value set upon the 

 cacao employed as money in ancient Mexico. * * * However, in the part 

 of the country where cacao has continued in use as currency up to the present 

 time, its value in ordinary market transactions is not the same as that assigned 

 to it when it is sold at wholesale as a food. The cacao seed, as money, keeps 

 a conventional value which, as a rule, is much greater than its market price. 

 That is to say, its usage in this sense is limited to transactions of little im- 

 portance, as a means of making small change, in the Provinces where copper 

 coins are not in circulation. 



" To return to ancient times, we may take the judicious and always reliable 

 accounts of M. Garcia Icazbalceta, and state that, ' in accordance with the 

 numeral system of the Mexicans, the base for counting cacao seeds was the 

 number 20. Thus, 400 seeds (20X20) formed a tzontli. We know that tzontli 

 in the Nahuatl language means four hundred. Even to-day it is the custom in 

 the City of Mexico to sell fire-wood by tzontles of 400 sticks. Twenty tzontlis, 

 that is 8,000, made a xiquipiUi, and three xiquipilli a load, which therefore 

 consisted of 24,000 seeds. Since this system of accounting was clumsy and could 

 i-esult in abuses, it was forbidden by an official order of January 28, 1527. 

 It was forbidden to sell cacao by count of the seeds, and ordered that the sale 

 should take place by full measure, guaranteed by the municipal seal. Later, 

 by an order of October 24, 1536, it was decreed, on the contrary, that the seeds 

 should be counted for sale, and that no other method should be followed.' 



" We have stated above that the Mexican nobles used cacao as a means of 

 hoarding their fortunes. The twofold use made of it, as food and as money, 

 caused it to rank as a basic element of wealth. The districts which produced 

 cacao paid it as tribute to the rulers, in vast quantities. Torquemada states 

 that in the palace of the famous King of Tetzcuco, Netzahualcoyotl, there was 

 expended every year 2.744.000 fanegas of cacao (the fanega is the equivalent 

 of about 40 kilograms). That is scarcely credible, although this author assures 

 us that he had seen the book of accounts approved by a grandson of the King. 

 Both Torquemada and the chronicler Herrera report that the Indian auxiliaries 

 of Cortes pillaged a cacao granary belonging to Monteuhgoma, where they 

 found more than 4,000 loads. The seeds were stored in osier baskets so large 

 that six men taking hold of hands could not span them. The amount carried 

 away was 600 loads, for which it was necessary to empty only six baskets. 



* Histoire gen6rale des choses de la Nouvelle-Espagne, p. 866. 1880. 



