The Great Market of Tenochtitlan

Tiene esta ciudad muchas plazas, donde hay continuos mercados y trato de comprar y vender. Tiene otra plaza tan grande como dos veces la de la ciudad de Salamanca, toda cercada de portales al rededor, donde hay cotidianamente arriba de sesenta mil ánimas comprando y vendiendo; donde hay todos los géneros de mercadurías que en todas las tierras se hallan, así de mantenimientos como de vituallas, joyas de oro y de plata, de plomo, de laton, de cobre, de estaño, de piedras, de huesos, de conchas, de caracoles y de plumas; véndese cal, piedra labrada y por labrar, adobes, ladrillos, madera labrada y por labrar de diversas maneras.

This city has many squares, where there are continual markets and dealing of buying and selling. It has another square as large as twice that of the city of Salamanca, all surrounded with arcades around, where there are daily upward of sixty thousand souls buying and selling; where there are all the kinds of merchandise that are found in all the lands, as much of sustenance as of victuals, jewels of gold and of silver, of lead, of brass [laton], of copper, of tin, of stones, of bones, of shells, of snails[-shells] and of feathers; lime is sold, stone worked and unworked, adobes, bricks, wood worked and unworked in various ways.

This city has many squares, where markets are always going on and people buy and sell. There is one square1 twice as large as the square of Salamanca,2 surrounded on every side by arcades. Every day more than sixty thousand people gather there to buy and sell. Every kind of goods found in any land is there: food and provisions, and jewelry of gold and silver, lead, brass, copper, tin, stones, bones, shells, snail shells, and feathers. They sell lime, stone both cut and uncut, adobes, bricks, and timber, both shaped and rough, of many kinds.

1. Bernal Díaz and other conquerors place this market at Tlatelolco. Tlatelolco grew up beside Tenochtitlan as a separate town until the Mexica ruler Axayacatl conquered it in 1473 and made it part of the capital.
2. Salamanca, a city in Castile known for its university, whose great square was famous.

Hay calle de caza donde venden todos los linajes de aves que hay en la tierra, así como gallinas, perdices, codornices, lavancos, dorales, zarcetas, tórtolas, palomas, pajaritos en cañuela, papagayos, búharos, águilas, falcones, gavilanes y cernícalos; y de algunas aves destas de rapiña venden los cueros con su pluma y cabezas y pico y uñas. Venden conejos, liebres, venados y perros pequeños, que crian para comer castrados.

There is a street of game where they sell all the kinds of birds that there are in the land, such as hens, partridges, quails, wild ducks [lavancos], dorales [a white, stork-like bird], teals, turtledoves, pigeons, little birds on a small cane [cañuela], parrots, búharos [carrion hawks], eagles, falcons, sparrowhawks and kestrels; and of some of these birds of prey they sell the skins with their feathers and heads and beak and claws. They sell rabbits, hares, deer and small dogs, which they raise for eating, castrated.

There is a street for game, where they sell every kind of bird in the land: hens, partridges, quail, wild ducks, dorales,3 teal, turtledoves, pigeons, little birds on reeds, parrots, búharos, eagles, falcons, sparrowhawks, and kestrels. Of some of these birds of prey they sell the skins, with the feathers, heads, beaks, and claws still on. They sell rabbits, hares, deer, and small dogs, which they raise and geld for eating.4

3. Cortés used Spanish bird names. The Real Academia's dictionary (1726–39) calls the doral a white bird the size of a hen, shaped like a stork, with a red bill, and the búharo a bird of prey like a kestrel that feeds on carrion.
4. Small dogs were raised for food in central Mexico; Bernal Díaz also saw young dogs sold in this market. Cortés says they were castrated.

Hay calle de herbolarios, donde hay todas las raíces y yerbas medicinales que en la tierra se hallan. Hay casas como de boticarios donde se venden las medicinas hechas, así potables como ungüentos y emplastos. Hay casas como de barberos, donde lavan y rapan las cabezas. Hay casas donde dan de comer y beber por precio. Hay hombres como los que llaman en Castilla ganapanes, para traer cargas. Hay mucha leña, carbon, braseros de barro y esteras de muchas maneras para camas, y otras mas delgadas para asiento y para esterar salas y cámaras.

There is a street of herbalists, where there are all the roots and medicinal herbs that are found in the land. There are houses as of apothecaries where the made medicines are sold, as much drinkable as ointments and plasters. There are houses as of barbers, where they wash and shave the heads. There are houses where they give [food] to eat and drink for a price. There are men like those that they call in Castile ganapanes, to carry loads. There is much firewood, charcoal, braziers of clay, and mats of many kinds for beds, and others thinner for a seat and for matting halls and chambers.

There is a street of herbalists, with every root and medicinal herb found in the land. There are shops like apothecaries' shops, where they sell ready-made medicines: drinks, ointments, and plasters. There are shops like barbers' shops, where people have their heads washed and shaved. There are houses where you can eat and drink for a price. There are men like those called ganapanes in Castile, who carry loads.5 There is plenty of firewood and charcoal, clay braziers, and mats of many kinds, some for beds and thinner ones to sit on and to cover the floors of halls and rooms.

5. Ganapanes were laborers in Castile who earned their bread carrying loads for hire. In Mexico, goods traveled by canoe or on the backs of porters, who carried them to and from the markets.

Hay todas las maneras de verduras que se fallan, especialmente cebollas, puerros, ajos, mastuerzo, berros, borrajas, acederas y cardos y tagarninas. Hay frutas de muchas maneras, en que hay cerezas y ciruelas que son semejables á las de España. Venden miel de abejas y cera y miel de cañas de maíz, que son tan melosas y dulces como las de azúcar, y miel de unas plantas que llaman en las otras islas maguey, que es muy mejor que arrope; y destas plantas facen azúcar y vino, que asimismo venden.

There are all the kinds of vegetables that are found, especially onions, leeks, garlic, cress [mastuerzo], watercress, borage, sorrel, and thistles and golden thistles. There are fruits of many kinds, among which there are cherries and plums that are similar to those of Spain. They sell honey of bees and wax, and honey of stalks of maize, which are as honeyed and sweet as those of sugar[cane], and honey of some plants that they call in the other islands maguey, which is much better than arrope [grape syrup]; and from these plants they make sugar and wine, which likewise they sell.

There is every kind of vegetable to be found, above all onions, leeks, garlic, cress, watercress, borage, sorrel, and two kinds of thistle. There are many kinds of fruit, among them cherries and plums like those of Spain. They sell bees' honey and wax, and honey from maize stalks, which are as sweet and full of syrup as sugarcane. They also sell honey from a plant that in the islands is called maguey,6 which is much better than grape syrup. From these plants they make sugar and wine, and they sell those too.

6. Maguey, the agave plant. Its sap was made into syrup and fermented into the drink pulque. Cortés uses the name he had learned in the Caribbean islands.

Hay á vender muchas maneras de filado de algodon de todas colores en sus madejicas, que parece propriamente alcaicería de Granada en las sedas, aunque esto otro es en mucha mas cantidad. Venden colores para pintores cuantas se pueden hallar en España, y de tan excelentes matices cuanto pueden ser. Venden cueros de venado con pelo y sin él, teñidos, blancos y de diversas colores. Venden mucha loza, en gran manera muy buena, venden muchas vasijas de tinajas grandes y pequeñas, jarros, ollas ladrillos y otras infinitas maneras de vasijas, todas de singular barro, todas ó las mas vedriadas y pintadas.

There are for sale many kinds of spun cotton of all colors in their little skeins, so that it seems properly the alcaicería of Granada in the silks, although this other is in much greater quantity. They sell colors for painters, as many as can be found in Spain, and of as excellent shades as can be. They sell skins of deer with hair and without it, dyed, white and of various colors. They sell much pottery, in great manner very good; they sell many vessels, of jars large and small, jugs, pots, bricks [?], and other infinite kinds of vessels, all of singular clay, all or most glazed and painted.

Many kinds of spun cotton are for sale, of every color, in little skeins. It looks just like the silk market of Granada,7 except that here there is far more. They sell as many painters' colors as can be found in Spain, in the finest shades there could be. They sell deerskins, with the hair and without, dyed, white, and of other colors. They sell a great deal of pottery, exceedingly fine. They sell many vessels: storage jars large and small, jugs, cooking pots, bricks, and countless other kinds. All are made of excellent clay, and all or most of them are glazed and painted.

7. Granada's silk market, the alcaicería, a separate quarter of shops, locked at night, where silk was sold. The name comes from Arabic.

Venden maíz en grano y en pan, lo cual hace mucha ventaja, así en el grano como en el sabor, á todo lo de las otras islas y tierra firme. Venden pasteles de aves y empanadas de pescado. Venden mucho pescado fresco y salado, crudo y guisado. Venden huevos de gallinas y de ansares y de todas las otras aves que he dicho en gran cantidad; venden tortillas de huevos fechas.

They sell maize in grain and in bread, which has a great advantage, as much in the grain as in the flavor, over all that of the other islands and mainland. They sell pies of birds and pasties of fish. They sell much fish fresh and salted, raw and cooked. They sell eggs of hens and of geese and of all the other birds that I have said, in great quantity; they sell tortillas of eggs made.

They sell maize, as grain and as bread, far better in both grain and flavor than any in the islands or on the mainland. They sell pies of fowl and pastries of fish. They sell a great deal of fish, fresh and salted, raw and cooked. They sell eggs of hens and geese and all the other birds I have named, in great numbers, and they sell ready-made egg tortillas.8

8. A Spanish tortilla was a round cake of beaten eggs fried in oil or butter. Cortés uses the word for egg dishes, not for the flat maize bread.

Finalmente, que en los dichos mercados se venden todas cuantas cosas se hallan en toda la tierra, que demás de las que he dicho, son tantas y de tantas calidades, que por la prolijidad y por no me ocurrir tantas á la memoria, y aun por no saber poner los nombres, no las expreso. Cada género de mercaduría se vende en su calle, sin que entremetan otra mercaduría ninguna, y en esto tienen mucha órden. Todo lo venden por cuenta y medida, excepto que fasta agora no se ha visto vender cosa alguna por peso.

Finally, [I say] that in the said markets are sold all things whatsoever that are found in all the land, which besides those I have said are so many and of so many qualities that, because of the length and because so many do not occur to my memory, and even because of not knowing how to put the names, I do not express them. Each kind of merchandise is sold in its street, without their mixing in any other merchandise, and in this they keep much order. Everything they sell by count and measure, except that until now nothing has been seen sold by weight.

In short, these markets sell everything that is found anywhere in the land. Besides what I have listed, there are so many things of so many kinds that I do not name them. The list would be too long, I cannot remember them all, and I do not even know their names. Each kind of goods is sold in its own street, and no other goods are mixed in. In this they keep very good order. They sell everything by count and by measure, but so far no one has been seen selling anything by weight.9

9. Mexica markets traded by count and measure, without scales. Cacao beans served as a kind of money.

Hay en esta gran plaza una muy buena casa como de audiencia, donde estan siempre sentadas diez ó doce personas, que son jueces y libran todos los casos y cosas que en el dicho mercado acaecen, y mandan castigar los delincuentes. Hay en la dicha plaza otras personas que andan continuo entre la gente mirando lo que se vende y las medidas con que miden lo que venden, y se ha visto quebrar alguna que estaba falsa.

There is in this great square a very good house like [one] of audience [a court], where there are always seated ten or twelve persons, who are judges and dispatch all the cases and things that happen in the said market, and order the delinquents punished. There are in the said square other persons who go continually among the people, watching what is sold and the measures with which they measure what they sell, and one has been seen broken that was false.

In this great square there is a very fine building like a courthouse. Ten or twelve people sit there at all times. They are judges, and they decide every case and matter that comes up in the market and order wrongdoers punished. Other officials walk constantly among the crowd, watching what is sold and the measures used to sell it. They have been seen to break a measure that was false.