It was the day of all days in the city of Tezcuco, as was a similar one in all the cities of the valley: the people's market day. And here let us digress long enough to acquaint the reader with the exigencies which rendered such a day necessary; and also to briefly notice some of its features.
The business methods of the Anahuacans were peculiar. They had neither shops nor stores of a public character where goods of any description were displayed and sold. Only on the _tianguez_--great square, or market-place--which every city possessed, were the products of the country exhibited for barter or sale.
The trades were not carried on in the ordinary way, but each particular mechanical pursuit was localized in some suitable portion of the city and placed under the supervision of a chief; and, it may be added, had its tutelary god and attendant celebrations.
Their merchants, who were usually very wealthy, might better be termed merchant traders. They were itinerant in character, and did a transient business, moving through the country at the head of a caravan, composed of _tamanes_ (burden-bearers) and an adequate guard for protection. They visited the larger cities to be present at the weekly fairs, market days, which were conducted on a colossal scale in the great square, the city's tianguez. On these occasions, which occurred regularly once a week (a week in the chronological reckoning of the Anahuacans consisted of five days), every branch of industry was represented separately in suitably arranged booths; and both great and small, from far and near, were present to buy or sell, or more frequently to exchange their produce and wares for needed articles of consumption.
Here was an individual who talked persuasively of the superior finish and beauty of his jewelry--it was not necessary to speak of its genuineness, for spurious goods were presumably unknown to the natives; a condition which no doubt existed, because of the unlimited supply of genuine raw material, and, we may add further, owing to the severe penalties prescribed for fraudulent impositions on the people. Another no less glib talker exploited in appealing voice, and flourished his flaunted featherwork before the eyes of the swarming multitude, all of whom delighted in this beautiful but expensive luxury. Others--dealers in sacred images and silver and earthenware, makers of furnishings and apparel, and last, but not least, the farmer, with his products of the soil, all bent on gathering in the cash, which consisted of quills of gold dust, Ts of tin, and bags of cacao, a kind of money which precluded the possibility of hoarding, leading us to conclude that no misers had a place among the Anahuacans. Blessed money, that gave no encouragement to the avaricious!
