The Mexico-Central America trade relations

Abstract

The historical evidence of the relations of exchange of products in the American isthmus, prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, is credited with the testimonies of the chroniclers of the conquest, when they refer, for example, that Hernán Cortez received from the gentlemen of Tabasco maps made in cotton cloth where rivers and towns between Tabasco and Nicaragua were indicated. In other words, on his trip to Hibueras, Cortez used as a guide the sketches that the Mayan merchants made to move to the commercial centers of the region. The red shell, which, like cocoa, was used by the Mayans as currency for their commercial transactions, transcended its use to the south of the continent, as some specimens have been found in Sao Paulo, Brazil; in Manabí, Ecuador, and in places on the Andean coast.