A Theory of the Ancient Mesoamerican Economy

Stephen A. Kowalewski

A chapter in Political Economy, Neoliberalism, and the Prehistoric Economies of Latin America, 2012, pp 187-224 from Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Abstract: Purpose – To provide a general theory for how the ancient Mesoamerican economy functioned. Design/methods/approach – First the chapter describes formally the sectors or operations of the economy: production, consumption, labor, specialization, exchange and prices, savings and investment, credit, quasi-money, markets, and dynamics. Then it relates this economy to its Mesoamerican cultural context. Findings – Much but not all of this economy, with its great volume of transactions, worked according to market principles, without coinage or state-fiat money yet not barter. The theory has testable implications. Periods of growth and decline in preindustrial urban societies could have been due to economic forces. Research limitations/implications – The presentation is verbal, not mathematical. Precolumbian economic documents hardly exist; advances in this line of research will have to come from archaeology (in part informed by earliest contact-era history). Social implications – Extending theories of money and markets to include preindustrial urban societies should deepen and enrich economic thinking generally. Originality/value of chapter – The first nonsubstantivist model of the Mesoamerican economy; insights on specialization and competition when firms are households; how high volumes of exchange work with commodity monies.

Keywords: Ancient economy; Mesoamerica; money; market integration; craft specialization; transaction costs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:reanzz:s0190-1281(2012)0000032012

DOI: 10.1108/S0190-1281(2012)0000032012

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