S5E213 - The Tlatelolco Market: Merchants, Gold, and Power

In the shadow of Tenochtitlan's great temples lay a marketplace unlike any in the world—Tlatelolco, where tens of thousands gathered daily to trade cacao, gold, jade, and slaves. This episode follows the market's rise from a humble island settlement to the economic heart of the Aztec Empire, and its brutal destruction during the Spanish conquest. We explore the pochteca, the merchant-spies who doubled as agents of empire; the strict regulations that governed trade; the use of cacao beans as currency; and the market's fate after the fall, when Cortés and his men plundered its riches. Through the eye...