"When we arrived at the market in the large plaza, Tlatelolco, as we had not seen such a thing, we were astonished at the multitude of people and quantity of merchandise and at the good order and control they had everywhere. The chieftains who were with us went along showing it to us. Each type of merchandise was by itself and had its place fixed and marked out. Let us begin with the merchants of gold, silver, rich stones, featherworks, cloths, embroidered goods, and other merchandise, including men and women Indian slaves; I say that they brought as many of them to sell in that great plaza as the Portuguese bring blacks from Guinea, and they brought them tied to long poles with collars around their necks so they could not flee, and others they left loose."
Diaz says there are slaves but sees this as a measure of control and power. Another comparison with the markets as he knew them "... where the fairs are held..." in the Medina del Campo region of Spain shows how impressive he thought they were.
"... where ... each type of merchandise has a street for itself; so they were in this great plaza and those who sold cloaks of maguey fiber, ropes, and sandals, which are the shoes they wear and make from the same plant; and from the same tree, they make very sweet cooked roots and other sweet things. All were in one part of the market in their designated place. In another part were skins of tigers, lions, otters, jackals, deer and other animals, badgers and mountain cats, some tanned and others untanned...." [p. 208]"Let us go on," he invites us,
"... and talk about those who sold beans and sage and other vegetables and herbs in another part. Let us go to those who sold hens, roosters with wattles, rabbits, hares, deer, and large ducks, small dogs, ... in their part of the marketplace. Let us talk about the fruiterers, of the women who sold cooked food, corn pudding, and tripe, also in their own part. Then every sort of pottery, made in a thousand ways, from great earthen vessels to small jugs, which were also in a place by themselves; also those who sold honey and honey paste and other delicacies like nut paste. Then those who sold wood, boards, cradles, beams, and blocks and benches, all in their own part." [pp. 208-9]
Diaz explains, with apologies how the locals saved human excrement 'for making salt or tanning skins'. They also made paper and sold goods made of bronze, copper and tin. There were other local items.
"... some reeds with the scent of liquid amber, filled with tobacco, and other yellow ointments and things of that sort ... they sold much seed under the arcades of that great marketplace.... those that made flint blades ... fisherwomen and others who sold some small cakes that they made from a sort of ooze they got from that great lake, and it curdles, and they make bread from it that has a flavor like cheese... some gourds and some jugs painted all over, made of wood.
I would like to have finished talking about all the things that were sold there, because there was so much and of such different types, but in order to see and inquire about all of that, as the great market was full of so many people, all of it surrounded by arcades, it would not be possible to see everything in two days." [pp. 209-10]Leaving the market and moving on to what he calls the cu, the temple complex, Diaz seems to describe accountants making records of transactions who used goose quills that were filled with gold. Or this is what he was told.
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from ch xcii in Bernal Díaz de Castillo: The True History of the Conquest of New Spain translated with an introduction and notes by Janet Burke and Ted Humphrey, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Co, Inc. 2012
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