Economy is conventionally defined as a function for production and distribution of goods and services by multiple agents within a society and/or geographical place An economy is hierarchical, made up of individuals that aggregate to make larger organizations such as governments and gives value to goods and services. The Maya economy had no universal form of trade exchange other than resources and services that could be provided among groups such as cacao beans and coppheological evidence to study the trade of perishable goods, it is noteworthy to explore the trade networks of artifacts and other luxury items that were likely transported together.
While subsistence agriculture played a central role in daily life, the Maya had a mechanism for economic exchange between settlements, which was capable of supporting specialists and a system of merchants through trade routes. Maya specialist Joanne Pillsbury states that "access to imported goods is perhaps the most recoverable aspect of prestige and leadership in ancient states." The power of Maya rulers not only depended on their ability to control resources, but also in managing the production and distribution of status goods as well as (non-local) commodities like salt. Furthermore, Maya laborers were subject to a labor tax to build palaces, temples and public works. A ruler successful in war was able to control more laborers and exact tribute on defeated enemies, further increasing their economic might.
Over the early Neoclassic era (2000 BC to 250 AD), the Maya civilization had spread throughout the Yucatan Peninsula and modern southern Mexican states of Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche, and Quintana Roo; and expanded throughout Central America in Guatemala, parts of Honduras, sections of El Salvador, and Belize. Large settlements across this region would use their most abundant resources to trade with other groups who did not have a lot of these resources. As part of the social economy, localized trade enabled comparative advantage to be utilised within communities that possessed products in abundance as they were able to exchange these with other communities to acquire what was unavailable locally. This framework was compounded to form a complex economy based on symbiotic relationships between communities and regions, wherein each relied on others to fill specific deficiencies in return for their specialized products, thus maximizing the overall production of the Maya kingdom.Richard J. Sharer with Loa P. Traxler (2006) The Ancient Maya, 6th Edition There for economic relationships began bilaterally between Maya groups, and from this trade, networks began to develop.
Economic structure Journalist John Noble Wilford notes that evidence for marketplace activity demonstrates an advanced economic structure. Archeologist Richard Terry used a method of chemical analysis to compare the soil of the ruins of Chunchucmil, an ancient Maya city, to that of a modern, unpaved market in Antigua, Guatemala, revealing that it was likely once a vibrant market. By comparing phosphorus levels, this "soil chemical analysis provides additional lines of evidence that have changed how we think of the ancient Maya's trade patterns. Traditionally we've thought the tax-tribute system was responsible for distributing goods. But this shows that the Maya not only had a marketplace and a market economy but an important middle class of merchants as well."
The ruins of [Chunchucmil] show that "using improved methods of analyzing the chemistry of ancient soils have detected where a large marketplace stood 1,500 years ago in a Maya city on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico." This is one of many archaeological sites that show proof of the use of marketplaces and advanced trade networks. Spondylus shell and Jadeite that don't belong in local areas have been found in a large number of archaeological sites and burial grounds of the Pre-Columbian Period that prove the existence of complex trade networks. Yet, in the acquisition of these luxury materials, we can see a larger hierarchical framework to Mayan trade. A central debate among Mayanists has been about the nature of Classic Maya political organization and how it articulated with economic systems within and between polities.
Maya political economics The classical understanding of Maya political and economic organization follows that production and wealth distribution was largely elite-controlled, for the maintenance of power and to validate their position in the social hierarchy. The control of luxury good and their production is equated to the "materialization of ideologies and rituals." In the context of ideology, this control on production enables the elite to "manipulate and extend ideology", making it a source of power that can be "given material form and controlled by a dominant group." However, Japanese archeologist Kazuo Aoyama points to evidence suggesting that there is greater fluidity between these social roles. In the Classic Period, Aoyama hypothesizes that the elite and artisans each possessed multiple social identities and roles, in an integrated system where the elite are participating in "attached and independent craft production." This evidence would elevate the social standing of artisans beyond what is typically assumed of the Classic Maya.
Political authority by means of controlling the production of luxury objects also gives the elite class a "de facto control" of their distribution. Though archeological evidence is still relatively premature to make any sweeping conclusions, several hypotheses have been made to help explain how elites may have controlled production systems in the Maya context:
"Attached specialization" in terms of production on command for elites. Sponsored production by the elite enables them to maintain a high degree of control over the artisans and the distribution of the product. This may be done by establishing attached facilities or by conducting production within their own households. They may collect finished or semi‐finished products from non‐elite households within or outside of their polities through a variety of extractive or exchange mechanisms. This requires political arrangements and an established system of barter, and thus some mechanism that resembles a marketplace. In the form of a domestic economy, where non-elite households are engaged in production when resources are made accessible. As such the elite would need to establish a process for seizing control of the distribution of the finished goods to maintain their elevated status. In this context, production and exchange are two sides of the same political coin and are used together by elites to accumulate resources and exercise control over their respective populations. This hypothesis of domestic, household-level production is supported by archaeological and ethnographic evidence in Mesoamerica Sadly, there is little remaining evidence of large-scale elite management of luxury goods, primarily found from the looting or excavation of burial sites. This archeological issue is likely due to traits associated with luxury goods, which are inherently scared by virtue, and often made of "exotic" raw materials - which gives them their intrinsic value. The evidence of concrete absence outside of elite burial sites lends itself to the conclusion that the provision of these luxury and ritual goods functioned like a "palace economy", whereby they were exchanged between rulers and their noble artisans across long distances in order to validate social alliances and political arrangements. to cement social alliances and political arrangement. That said, there have also been arguments made against this hypothesis, that there was, in fact, non-elite participation in their production, lending itself to a more market economy structure.
Predictably, research at ancient Maya sites has exhibited disproportionate allocation of the highest quality, and most exotic goods to the elite. That said, there is evidence that these goods were more widely distributed in areas where the raw materials are naturally found. For example, jadeite objects was universally considered valuable across the Maya kingdom, but its function was varied by nature of being both utilitarian and religious; because of its close relationship to the "breath spirit", jade also held the function of a funerary rite and the ritual conjuring of gods and ancestors.
Chunchucmil as a market economy
Chunchucmil is a Classic Maya city in northwest Yucatan, Mexico.
Classic Maya sites in the lowlands of the Yucatan Peninsula has many examples of monumental art and architecture in central sacrosanct spaces, while archeological evidence suggests that their political economies were largely centralized. That said, the predominantly Early Classic site of Chunchucmil sticks out as an anomaly. Despite being an urban population ranks among the largest and most densely packed in any Maya site, it inhabits one of the most depauperate agricultural landscapes. These juxtaposing elements have driven archaeological research to the conclusion that Chunchucmil had a commercialized economy, which comes in direct contrast with the "palace economy" structure detailed in the prior section. This marketplace was functioned not only to serve as a central point of exchange for imported goods but also as a site for servicing merchants along the most active Mesoamerican maritime trade route and funneling long-distance trade items to sites in the interior of the peninsula;Drennan, R.D. (1984a) 'Long-distance Movement of Goods in the Mesoamerican Formative and Classic', American Antiquity 49: 27–43. the market place was found to have been connected to the periphery by several roadways, making the central location easily accessible by merchants.
Bruce Dahlin's geochemical analysis of the site showed a correlation between phosphate concentrations and rock alignment to further indicate the orientation of the marketplace. The site was mapped as rows of rock alignments and low rock piles. What appeared to be a prepared plaza surface laid on top of these rock piles (with a thickness of between 20 and 50 cm), which pointed to the conclusion that they were foundations of very small ephemeral structures, specifically a marketplace. Soil samples from this outdoor market revealed that concentrations of phosphates were up to 20 times greater than the control soil sites in the rest of Chunchucmil. Furthermore, there was a consistent band of very high phosphate values that was roughly isomorphic (of a similar time) with the long row of rock alignments and rock piles. This pattern was comparable to that of a modern market in Antigua, Guatemala, where rows of market stalls had significantly high phosphates levels as well. High phosphate values may indicate large amounts of food and other organic substances were exchange and/or discarded (perhaps even as a function of waste disposal) here for a considerable period. The centralized nature of it shows this to be a gathering place and perhaps evidence of a marketplace.
Labor organization