14 



TECHNOLOGY AND ECONOMY 



The idea of borrowing money either to buy 

 merchandise for resale, or to rent land and hire 

 agricultural labor, is virtually nonexistent. 



In the regional economy, market places are 

 exceedingly important. There are stores owned 

 by Ladinos, but most transactions of both Ladinos 

 and Indians occur in established outdoor market 

 places. Occasional peddlers distribute their wares 

 to homes, some merchants buy produce at the 

 establishments where they are produced, but such 

 practices are exceptional to the more general 

 pattern. And in any case, it is in the market 

 place where a number of buyers and a number of 

 sellers meet that prices for all tend to be set." 



In the market place, frequently the central 

 plaza of the town, vendors spread their wares and 

 buyers come to purchase them. Almost every 

 town has its market day once or twice a week; 

 the larger towns have them daily. The people 

 who have produce to sell know where and when 

 the markets are held, and they make their choice 

 of markets in accordance with their particular 

 circumstances. They know that if they go to a 

 farther market, they will — other factors being 

 equal — get better prices for their goods, which are 

 worth more the farther from their source they are, 

 but they may prefer to spend less time in travel 

 and get a smaller price. Or the men may go to 

 far markets with large quantities while the women 

 go to sell in the local markets. Likewise, the 

 purchasers of goods make a choice of markets 

 according to what they want to buy and how 

 much time they are willing to spend to get it more 

 cheaply and closer to its source. Everybody in 

 the region I have studied Icnows that Tecpan is 

 the place to buy lime, that bananas are cheaper 

 in Atitlan, that pitch pine and pigs are cheaper in 

 Chichicastenango. If one wants a few ounces of 

 lime for the weekly cooking of corn, he will not 

 go to Tecpan for it. But if he wants a hundred 

 pounds for the building of a house, it may pay 

 him to take the journey. Nobody will normally 

 take a day's trip to Chichicastenango for a few 

 cents' worth of pitch pine, but if a person wants 

 to buy a little pig or two for fattening, it will pay 

 him to go there. 



This basic knowledge about markets is known 

 even to a child, and it is consistently acted upon 

 when conditions permit. 



" McBryde (1933) describes the Sololi market particularly and (1947) the 

 niftrbet system of the entire region. 



People arrive at market at 9 or 10 in the morning 

 and take their usual places, generally arranged so 

 that vendors of the same product sit one next to 

 the other. The vendor unloads his wares, arranges 

 them on a mat or table in front of him, and waits 

 for the customers. A prospective buyer comes up 

 and looks over his tomatoes, for example, touching 

 them at will. He asks how much they are. "Two 

 cents a pound." The buyer offers a cent a pound, 

 and the merchant shakes his head. The buyer 

 passes on, presumably to look for tomatoes else- 

 where. He does not return. The same happens 

 with several other prospective customers. The 

 tomatoes are not selling at 2 cents a pound. 

 Perhaps one of the buyers, when that price is 

 mentioned, remarks that he is asking too much, 

 that others are selling tomatoes for less. Even if 

 this does not happen, the vendor after an hour may 

 notice that he is selling no tomatoes at his price. 

 Another customer comes. "How much are the 

 tomatoes?" "Two cents." "One cent," says the 

 buyer. "No; my bottom price is IM cents." The 

 customer takes some at that price. The next 

 customer perhaps counters the 2 cents proposal 

 with an offer of iK cents. "Take them," says the 

 merchant. 



Sometimes a merchant finds that he is the only 

 one who happens to be selling tomatoes in this 

 particular market this particular day. Seeing 

 this, he perhaps asks 4 cents a pound. He soon 

 finds, let us say, that despite his fortunate position, 

 people prefer to do without than to pay more than 

 2 cents a pound. And eventually his price comes 

 down to that. Or he may unluckily discover that 

 everybody has the intention of selling tomatoes in 

 this market this day; and our merchant who may 

 have bought these tomatoes the day before in a 

 market near the tomato-producing area for a cent 

 a pound, may find himself unloading at half that 

 price. Tomatoes are highly perishable, so the 

 factor of chance is important. With respect to 

 nonperishable items, however, there is still 

 fluctuation in price with the supply and demand 

 of the particular time and place, since if supply is 

 short people will pay a little more to get what they 

 want when they want it, while if supply is long a 

 merchant will reduce his price at least to the 

 point where the loss will be no greater than the 

 value of the time spent in repeating a trip to 

 market. Generally speaking, however, and par- 

 ticularly with respect to less perishable items, 



