Cacao beans was once a currency

Papa:Money doesn’t grow on trees.
Son:I hate you 🙂
This idiom wouldn’t have existed if Mayan culture hadn’t collapsed; yes, money did grow on trees.

Research published in the Journal Economic Anthropology suggests Mesoamerican civilization (Maya civilization) may have used cacao beans as a mode of payment, more like a currency.
In the Aztec Empire (currently central Mexico), there are also references that food, clothes, taxes, gifts, and offerings to their gods were also paid using cacao beans. Once upon a time, cacao beans were a prestigious currency. Spanish colonial historians also said something similar; they said Europeans might have paid workers in cacao beans, which was a prominent currency back then. One group of researchers says that the crop failure of cacao led to the collapse of Maya civilization, but another group says that drought led to the downfall of Mayan civilization. But undeniably, the Mayans were one of the most advanced civilizations ever to live on planet Earth. They existed from antiquity to the early modern period.

Having a pocket full of beans was like having a wallet loaded with real money.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rinu Sarangadharan
Co-Founder at Domordot.com
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