The Distribution of Cacao Cultivation in Pre-Columbian America 1

Bibliographic Data

ID8375598
AuthorsJohn F Bergmann (University of Alberta, corresponding author)
Year1969
Volume59
Issue1
Pages85-96
Publication date1969-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnnals of the Association of American Geographers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0004-5608 • E-ISSN: 1467-8306
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-8306.1969.tb00659.x
OpenAlexW2085614774
LanguageEN
Citations received40

On the eve of the Spanish conquest aboriginal cacao cultivation extended from the two coasts of central Mexico to Costa Rica. Although the districts of greatest production were located within the Maya language areas of southern Mexico and Pacific Guatemala-El Salvador, a large and increasing market for cacao lay in the Nahua language areas of highland Mexico. To this area important amounts of cacao moved in trade from the southern zone of production. Distributions of Indian cacao cultivation have been plotted from published and unpublished primary sources. An unpublished tribute assessment list (Tasación de Tributos 1548–51) provides the most detailed distributional information available for the significant cacao zones of Guatemala and El Salvador. Notes 1The author gratefully acknowledges financial assistance received from the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Foundation, which made possible the basic research for this study carried on in the archives and in the field in Central America and Mexico. 2Bartolomé de Las Casas, Historia de Las Indias (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1951), Vol. II, p. 274. 3Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España (Mexico: Oficino Tipográfica de la Secretaría de Fomento, 1904), Vol. I, p. 280. 4Juan de Torquemada, Monarquía Indiana (Mexico: S. Chávez Hayhoe, 1943–1944), Vol. I, p. 167. 5Diaz, op. cit., footnote 3, Vol. I, p. 287. 6Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, Historia General y Natural de las Indias (Madrid: Imprenta de la Real Academie de la Historia, 1851–55), Vol. IV, pp. 36–37. 7Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, Historia General de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas i Tierra Firme del Mar Océano (Madrid: En la Imprenta Real de Nicolás Rodriguez Franco, 1726), Vol. II, p. 219. 8Oviedo, op. cit., footnote 6, Vol. I, p. 315. 9W. H. Prescott, History of the Conquest of Peru (various editions), first published 1843. 10The following authorities were used by Prescott (here cited in later editions): Francisco de Xeres, "Verdadera Relación. ..." in Colección de libros y documentos referentes a la historia del Perú (Lima: H. H. Urtiaga y C. A. Romero, 1917), Vol. VI, pp. 1–76; "Relación de los primeros descubrimientos de ... Pizarro y ... Almagro, sacada del códice CXX de la Biblioteca Imperial de Viena," in Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España (Madrid: Imprenta de la Viuda de Calera, 1842–1895), Vol. V, pp. 193–201; Pedro Ruiz Naharro, "Relación de los hechos de los españoles en el Perú desde su descubrimiento hasta la muerte de ... Pizarro,"Colección ... España, Vol. XXVI, pp. 232–56; Fernando Montesinos, "Memorias antiguas historiales y politicas del Perú," in Colección de libros españoles raros o curiosos (Madrid: Imprenta de M. Rivadeneyra, 1871–1896), Vol. XVI, pp. 1–176; Agustín Zárate, "Historia del descubrimiento y conquista de la Provincia del Perú y las Guerras y cosas señaladas en ella ..." in Biblioteca de Autores Españoles. Historiadores primitivos de Indias (Madrid: Imprenta y estereotipia de M. Rivadeneyra, 1862), Vol. XXVI, pp. 459–574. A fuller account of the early experiences of the Spanish conquerors of Perú is that of Pedro Pizarro, "Relación del descubrimiento y conquista de los reinos del Perú... Arequipa, 1571," in Colección ... España, Vol. V, pp. 201–388, which mentions a number of crops used by natives, but in no place mentions cacao. Nor is cacao mentioned in the "Relación de varios sucesos del tiempo de los Pizarros, Almagros, La Gasca, y otros," in Colección ... España, Vol. XXVI, pp. 193–203. 11I. Erneholm, Cacao Production of South America. Historical Development and Present Geographical Distribution (Gothenburg: Goteborgs Hogskolas Geografiska Institution, 1948), p. 53. 12Reginaldo de Lizárraga, Descripción y Pcblación de las Indias (Lima: Imprenta Americana, 1908), p. 12. 13Joseph de Acosta, Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1940), p. 286. 14Erneholm, op. cit., footnote 11, p. 62. 15Pedro de Simón, Noticias historiales de las Conquistas de Tierra Firme en las Indias Occidentales (Bogotá: M. Rivas, 1882–1892), Vol. I, p. 240. Simón's work was first published in 1626. 16Juan López de Velasco, Geografía y Descripción Universal de las Indias (Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Fortanet, 1894), p. 371. 17Gabriel Soares de Sousa, Tratado Descriptivo do Brasil em 1587, Terceira edicao (Sao Paulo-Rio de Janeiro: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1938), passim. 18"Carta al Rey del Licenciado Tejada ... a 11 de marzo de 1545," in Paso y Troncoso (Ed.), Epistolario de Nueva España (Mexico: Antigua Librería Robredo de J. Porrúa e Hijos, 1939–42), Vol. IV, p. 187. For discussion of Colima cf. Suma de Visitas de Pueblos, in Paso y Troncoso (Ed.), Papeles de Nueva España (Madrid: "Sucesores de Rivadeneyra," 1905), series 2, Vol. I; Lorenzo Lebrón de Quiñones, Memoria de los Pueblos de la Provincia de Colima, in Paso y Troncoso (Ed.), Papeles de Nueva España (Mexico: Vargas Rea, 1944), Vol. II; "Carta al Rey, de Pedro de Mendoza ... 27 de febrero de 1552," in Paso y Troncoso (Ed.), Epistolario de Nueva España, Vol. VI, p. 149; C. O. Sauer, Colima of New Spain in the Sixteenth Century, Ibero-Americana: 29 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1948), pp. 93–95, et passim; R. F. Millon, When Money Grew on Trees, A Study of Cacao in Ancient Mesoamerica (Doctoral dissertation, Columbia University, 1955), p. 52 ff. 19Suma de Visitas, op. cit., footnote 18, pp. 204 (Tuxpan) and 176 (Papantla). 20J. C. Clark (Ed.), Codex Mendoza (London: Waterlow & Sons, Ltd., 1938), Vol. III, fol. 45v., covers the subject for the first two provinces; production in the third province is referred to in D. Durán, Historia de las Indias de Nueva-España y Islas de Tierra Firme (Mexico: Editora Nacional, 1951), Vol. I, pp. 252–53, and in H. Alvarado Tezozomoc, Crónica Mexicana: Escrita Hacia el Año de 1598 (Mexico: Editorial Leyenda, 1944), pp. 171–74. 21R. L. Roys, The Indian Background of Colonial Yucatán (Washington, D. C.: The Carnegie Institution, 1943), p. 106. 22Alonso Ponce, Relación Breve y Verdadera de Algunas Cosas de las Muchas que Sucedieron al Padre Fray Alonso Ponce en las Provincias de la Nueva España (Madrid: Imprenta de la Viuda de Calera, 1875), Vol. I, p. 305. Ponce's Relación bounds Soconusco on the east by the Tilapa River, a few miles inside modern Guatemala. This boundary, rather than the Suchiate River, is used by early writers. 23Clark, op. cit., footnote 20, Vol. III, fol. 46v-47r. Soconusco was the most distant area yielding tribute to the Valley of Mexico. According to the Codex Mendoza the total tribute in cacao sent annually to the Valley of Mexico from all subject areas was 980 cargas, collected as follows: R. H. Barlow in his study, The Extent of the Empire of the Culhua Mexica, Ibero-Americana: 28 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1949), p. 25, was in error regarding the amount of cacao tribute from Tochtepec. From this province he listed 20 cargas instead of 200. This may be a misprint. The 16th century Spanish annotation on the Codex Mendoza clearly states as a part of the tribute for Tochtepec province, "y mas dozientas cargas de cacao" and this amount is indicated in the Indian pictograph, showing as the symbol of cacao tribute, two wicker baskets marked with a cacao pod, each basket flying five flags, the flags designating twenty cargas apiece, or 100 cargas per basket. There is no question but that the tribute from Tochtepec was 200 cargas annually, not twenty. 24Pedro de Alvarado, "Relación ... a Hernán Cortés,"Cartas de Relación de la Conquista de América (Mexico: Editorial Nueva España, n.d.), p. 596; A. Recinos, Pedro de Alvarado (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1952), pp. 64–65. 25Tasaciones de los naturales de las provincias de guathemala y nicaragua y yucatan e pueblos de la villa de comaiagua q se sacaron por mandado de los senores presidente e oidores del audiencia y chancilleria real de los confines, 1548–1551. MS. Seville, Archivo General de Indias, Aud. de Guatemala, leg. 128. 401 folios. Microfilm copy was consulted in the Sauer Collection of the Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley. 26Juan de Pineda, Descripción de la Provincia de Guatemala. Año 1594, in Colección de Libros y Documentos Referentes a la Historia de América, Vol. VIII, Relaciones Históricas y Geográficas de América Central (Madrid: V. Suárez, 1908), p. 429. 27F. W. McBryde, Cultural and Historical Geography of Southwest Guatemala (Washington, D. C.: Carnegie Institution, 1945), p. 33; and Pineda, op. cit., footnote 26, p. 438. 28Pineda, op. cit., footnote 26, p. 437. 29Pineda, op. cit., footnote 26, p. 429. 30Pineda, op. cit., footnote 26, p. 429. 31R. Barón Castro, Reseña Histórica de la Villa de San Salvador (Madrid: Ediciones Cultura Hispánica, 1950), pp. 170–71. 32A total of 5,302 xiquipiles (Table 2) or about 106,000 lbs. 33Diego Garcia de Palacio, "Relación hecha por el Licenciado Palacio al Rey D. Felipe II, en la que describe la provincia de Guatemala, las costumbres de los indios y otras cosas notables," in L. Fernández, Colección de Documentos para la Historia de Costa Rica (San José de Costa Rica: Imprenta Nacional, 1881), Vol. I, pp. 1–52. 34"On the flank of a high volcano [San Vicente] are four Indian towns called the Nunualcos, where for a short time in this district, cacao has been grown and processed in abundance, and in such quantity that proportionately, it exceeds that of the province of the Izalcos." Palacio, op. cit., footnote 33, p. 33. 35Chalpetique survives today to the northwest of San Miguel, but the exact site of Xerebaltique remains unknown. Xerebaltique was chosen by Pedro de Alvarado and Viceroy Mendoza as the site for a shipyard to build a fleet for trade with the Moluccas. Barón Castro believes that it must have been on the Bay of Jiquilisco, and it may well have been on one of the eastern reaches of this bay near the Jucuarán Hills. The location indicated on Fig. 3 represents no more than the foregoing conjecture. Cf. R. Barón Castro, La Población de El Salvador (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas—Instituto Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, 1942), p. 609, note 12. 36Francisco de García Peláez, Memoria para la Historia del Antiguo Reino de Guatemala (Guatemala: Tip, Nacional, 1943–44), 2nd ed., Vol. I, p. 184. 37A. Vázquez de Espinosa, Compendio y Descripción de las Indias Occidentales (Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1948), p. 209. 38Relación de la Provincia de Verapaz Hecha por los Religiosos de Santo Domingo de Cobán 7 de diciembre de 1574, MS, University of Texas Library, JGI XX-4. Cf. also Descripción de la Provincia de la Verapaz Hecha en Cobán a Fines del Siglo 16 por Francisco Monterol de Miranda, MS, University of Texas Library, JGI XX-3. 39R. L. Roys, in The Indian Background of Colonial Yucatan (Washington, D. C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1943), stated (p. 113) that the Motagua Valley was another "important commercial tributary of Nito" and thus a source of cacao, but he cites no authority for his statement. The early accounts of this area give no indication that the Motagua Valley was a commercial source of cacao for the Nito traders. Cacao does well near the river's mouth, and was raised during the early colonial period at Zacapa (doubtless with irrigation), but we have no record of production from the lower valley. 40Oviedo, op. cit., footnote 6, Vol. III, p. 254. 41López de Velasco, op. cit., footnote 16, p. 312. 42R. S. Chamberlain, The Conquest and Colonization of Honduras, 1502–1550 (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1953), pp. 60–61. 43R. F. Millon, "Trade, Tree Cultivation, and the Development of Private Property in Land,"American Anthropologist, Vol. 57 (1955), p. 703, for a contrary opinion. 44"The Indians of the Chorotega tongue are the ancient lords and native people of those parts, and they are an uncultured people and courageous ..., and those that are called and are of the Nicaragua tongue are an immigrant people, they (from wherever they may have come) are the ones who brought to the land cacao, or the almonds that circulate as money in those parts; and those people own the plantings of trees that bear that fruit, and the Chorotegans do not own a single tree of it." Oviedo, op. cit., footnote 6, Vol. IV, pp. 60–61. 45Quoted by P. Perez Zeledón, "El Pueblo de San Bernardino de Quepo; Identidad del Pueblo de Quepo y el de Cochira o Cuchira,"Revista de los Archivos Nacionales (San José, Costa Rica), Vol. IV (1940), p. 578. 46Provanca hecha a pedimento de Juan Vázquez de Coronado acerca de sus méritos y servicios.—Año de 1563, in León Fernández, Colección de Documentos para la Historia de Costa Rica (Paris: Imprenta P. Dupont, 1886) Vol. IV, p. 228. 47Oviedo, op. cit., footnote 6, Vol. I, p. 318. 48Fray Agustin de Ceballos, "Memorial para el Rey nuestro Señor de la descripción y calidades de la provincia de Costa Rica," March 10, 1610, in M. M. de Peralta, Costa Rica y Colombia de 1573 a 1881. Su jurisdicción y sus limites territoriales (Madrid: M. Murillo, 1886), p. 26. When Vásquez de Coronado first entered the Sixaola area, his attention was distracted from the natural fruits of the land to grains of placer gold found in the streams, and his failure to mention cacao in this lowland does not necessarily constitute evidence against pre-Columbian cacao cultivation in Sixaola

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