oe) 
courts in the market-places to settle disputes on the spot, 
and there were market officials similar to our inspectors 
of weights and measures. Falsification of the latter was 
[Joyce, 1914, p. 130.] 
visited with severe punishment. 
That this summary may be regarded as applicable to 
markets in populous districts throughout Central 
America is evident from numerous original sources, 
such as Oviedo: 
. each generation has its plazas or markets ... in 
every major town; but only those speaking the same lan- 
guage are admitted at these fairs or plazas, and if anyone 
else goes, it is to sell edibles to the others or serve them 
as slaves [Oviedo, 1851-55, vol. 4, p. 37; see also Ximenes, 
1929-31, vol. 1, p. 94, and Cervantes de Salazar, 1914, pp. 
303-308]. 
The present-day distribution of markets in South- 
west Guatemala, the approximate relative im- 
portance of each in terms of numbers of vendors per 
week, and the frequency of convening, may be seen 
on map 19. It will be noted at the present time, just 
as it was when Oviedo wrote over 400 years ago, 
that each “principal town” has a market. Some are 
larger than others, and not all of the major ones 
convene daily. In certain cases strategically located 
villages, such as San Francisco el Alto, may have 
larger markets, even though held only once a week, 
than those of many towns that are larger and more 
populous. 
FACTORS UNDERLYING MARKETS 
On the whole, though most Ladinos buy in the 
plaza, relatively few of them sell there, for they pre- 
fer to operate stores or stalls in the large markets, 
and more Ladinos than Indians can afford them. 
For this reason they are numerous only in the more 
populous and elaborate market places, such as those 
of Guatemala City, Quezaltenango, Mazatenango, 
Huehuetenango, and Retalhuleu. These markets are 
large and fairly well attended every day, though some 
days are more important than others (map 19). 
More like concentrations of stores than periodic In- 
dian trade gatherings, they reflect Ladinization and 
hence a certain degree of urbanization and small-scale 
industrialization. 
Towns may be well developed even where Ladinos 
are numerically unimportant, if the Indians are town- 
dwelling craftsmen, as at Totonicapan. The daily 
market depends upon a large number of buyers liv- 
ing close within the orbit of attraction of the trade 
2 INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY—PUBLICATION NO. 4 
center. Only in a populous town or village 4° where 
the inhabitants are well nucleated are there enough 
consumers to support a sizable daily market, in 
which most goods are retailed in small quantities. 
The three most important factors favoring a 
strongly developed market seem to be as follows: 
(1) A high population density in the tributary area, 
(2) situation on major trade routes, and (3) an 
intermediary location between contrasted areas of 
production. Though no single market depends solely 
on any one of these factors, the first is of primary 
importance in such a metropolis as Quezaltenango; 
the second is well exemplified in Santo Tomas la 
Union; and the third accounts largely for the ex- 
traordinary weekly market of San Francisco el Alto 
(see pp. 127-128). All three factors contribute some- 
what to every important market. The general relation- 
ship between markets and areas of dense population 
may be seen by comparing maps 8 and 19, which 
show that most of the large plazas are in the well 
settled portions of the Highlands, such as the Que- 
zaltenango—Totonicapan Valley. The alinement of 
market towns along trade routes is particularly no- 
table in the natural, transverse passageways formed 
by the gorges and passes between volcanoes, as, for 
example, along the Quezaltenango—Retalhuleu and 
Nahuala—Mazatenango routes. The line of piedmont 
markets, centering along and above the railroads, is 
equally prominent (maps 2 and 19). The greatest 
single basis for the contrast between producing 
regions is the sharp altitudinal difference between 
Highlands and Lowlands. The products of both are 
found in variety and abundance in all plazas. 
Wholesaling of goods to itinerant merchants may 
be observed in many of the large trade centers. San 
Francisco el Alto is preeminent in this regard (pl. 
36). Some of the more important items sold whole- 
sale in that market are blankets, cotton textiles, ropes, 
garlic, pottery, incense, hats, chile, panela, Lowland 
fruit, and young pigs. Except for the first and last, 
none of these is produced locally. Pottery comes to 
San Francisco from at least five sources (p. 127). 
Most of the middlemen’s wares are not bought 
from wholesalers in the market, however. It seems 
generally true, especially of such manufactured goods 
u6 Santiago Atitlin is the only strictly Indian market which convenes 
daily; and in Santiago, plaza is held twice daily. There are in this 
village such contributing factors as large population; crowding of houses 
into a small nucleus; dearth of Ladinos, hence stores, in Santiago; and 
diversity of essential products retailed by women, but many of them 
brought in by men, who are the long-distance traders, on their way to 
other markets (see pp. 97-101). 
