Making money in Mesoamerica: Currency production and procurement in the Classic Maya financial system

The material nature of money has always been at the core of debates about its early development and its role in socioeconomic relationships. Archaeology can contribute to these debates through its attention to the material world, its long-term perspective, and its examination of diverse contexts in which money has been used. In this article, I examine the early monetization of cacao beans and cotton textiles among the Classic Maya (250-900CE). I argue that these products, originally valued for their use in status display, took on monetary functions within a context of expanding marketplaces among rival Maya kingdoms. As a result of this monetization, cacao and textiles could be used to finance more state activities and household needs. In response, political regimes and their subjects devoted more labor and resources to the acquisition of these products and circulated new discourses justifying this acquisition. I conclude that money's value in social relationships is not shaped by its materiality alone but by practices and discourses that frame specific material properties as valuable; through historical processes that move these value-laden materials into new social contexts; and through the reframing of the relationships and motivations of those who produce, circulate, and consume them.