Media of Exchange in 16th Century New Spain and the Spanish Response

Abstract

There were many kinds of money in use in New Spain from the time of the conquest to the opening of the mint in Mexico City in 1537. Some was Spanish; other was Indian and dated back centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards. After the conquest, Spanish coins were the official media of exchange, but there were very few in New Spain.Once the mint was in operation, Spanish coins became the first legal tender in the New World—begun 256 years before the first authorized coin was struck at Philadelphia. Furthermore, these “Mexican” coins served as a medium of exchange the world over. The real circulated freely in the Orient; many specimens bear “chop-marks” indicating the official validation of each individual bank through which they passed.In fact, the Spanish real became the standard of the currency of the United States and circulated with official sanction until 1857. One real was equal to twelve and one-half cents and was called a bit. A quarter of a dollar or twenty-five cents was equal to two bits, hence the present day expression.

The Trade in Cooking Pots Under the Aztec and Spanish Empires

“…Cloth was an important product, used to fulfill the wide variety of functions of clothing for the family, from providing warmth and protection from the elements, to marking class, ethnicity, and gender (Anawalt 1981; Brumfiel 2001b). Cloth was also a main form of currency among the Aztecs (Seeger 1978; Villanueva 1985:20–21). It was rendered in large quantities as tribute to the Aztec king, and later to the Spanish (Brumfiel 1996a, 2001b; Villanueva 1985:21).…”