Cacao
The beans from which chocolate is made. In Mexico and Yucatán they served as money.
The People Made of Maize
The Popol Vuh of the K’iche’ Maya, from the copy made by Francisco Ximénez, as printed by Charles-Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg (Paris, 1861) · a creation story; written down in Latin letters probably in the 1500s; the surviving copy made about 1700–1715
Quehecut x-e quicot vi rumal ri u riqitahic utzilah huyub, nohinak chi guz, tzatz chi gana hal, zaki hal, tzatz naipuch chi pek, chi caco; mavi ahilan tulul, cavex, ginom, tapal, ahache, cab; nohinak quilah echa chupan ri tinamit pan Paxil, pan Cayala, u bi. Qo-vi echa u vachinel ronohel, chuti echa, nima echa; chuti ticon, nima ticon, x-qut u beel cuma chicop. Ta x-queex cut ri gana hal, zaki hal, beleheb cu uqaal x-u ban Xmucane, echa x-oquic, r’ucha, r’openal x-vinakir, u gabchial u ganaal vinak x-uxic. Ta x-qui ban ri Alom, Qaholom, Tepeuh, Gucumatz que uchaxic.
The creators rejoiced at finding such a good mountain, full of sweet things. It was thick with yellow and white maize, thick also with pataxte and cacao. There were more sapotes, anonas, jocotes, nances, and ahache than anyone could count, and honey too. The town of Paxil and Cayala, as it is called, was full of delicious food. There was food of every kind, small foods and great foods, small plants and great plants, and the animals had shown the way. Then the yellow and white maize was ground, and Xmucane made nine drinks from it. This food went in and became strength and fat. It became the muscle and vigor of humans. This is what the Bearer and Begetter, Tepeuh and Gucumatz, as they are called, did.
Maize, Markets and Books in Yucatán
Diego de Landa, Account of the Things of Yucatán (mid-1560s), on trade and farming, and on the Maya books · written in the mid-1560s (describes Maya life before and after the Spanish conquest, as Landa knew it from 1549)
El officio en que mas inclinados estavan es mercaderia, llevando sal, ropa y esclavos a tierra de Ulua y Tavasco, trocandolo todo por cacao y cuentas de piedra que era su moneda, y con esta solian comprar esclavos o otras cuentas con razon que eran finas y buenas, las quales por joyas trayan sobre si en las fiestas los señores. Y tenian otras hechas de ciertas conchas coloradas por moneda y joyas de sus personas. Y lo traian en sus bolsas de red que tenian y en los mercados tratavan de todas quantas cosas avia en essa tierra. Fiavan, prestavan, y pagavan cortesmente y sin usuras.
The trade they liked best was commerce. They carried salt, cloth, and slaves to the lands of Ulua and Tavasco and traded it all for cacao and stone beads, which were their money. With these they bought slaves, or finer and better beads, which the lords wore as jewels at feasts. They also had money made of certain red shells, which they wore as jewelry too. They carried their money in net bags. In the markets they traded in everything there was in that land. They sold on credit, lent, and paid back honorably and without usury.