Cacao Bean Currency (Mesoamerica)

Timeline

1. c. 1428–1521Tenochtitlan · Valley of MexicoThe great market of Tenochtitlan priced daily goods, slaves, and labor in cacao beans; records note large units such as xiquipilli (80,000 beans), alongside quachtli (cloth), forming dual standards for imperial finance and the market.
2. 1521–1528New Spain · New SpainCortés and early encomenderos still paid for portage, fortification building, and rations in cacao beans; Spanish authorities converted cacao and pesos in tax registers, creating a triple pricing system among the conquering army, indigenous communities, and metropolitan merchants.
3. 1528–1650Colonial provinces of Mesoamerica · MesoamericaAs silver coins from Mexico and Peru flowed in and royal tariffs were unified in accounting, cacao beans receded to a secondary role in bulk trade, yet persisted long in rural markets, tribute conversion, and ceremonial exchange, only largely disappearing from official accounts around the 18th century.