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A little wonder, every day

Cacao beans served as a means of payment in Mesoamerica

AI-generated symbolic market scene with livestock, cacao beans and trade goods. It illustrates examples, not a universal currency system or documented transaction. Generated with OpenAI image generation; no external source or reuse license applies.

AI-generated symbolic market scene with livestock, cacao beans and trade goods. It illustrates examples, not a universal currency system or documented transaction. Generated with OpenAI image generation; no external source or reuse license applies.

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In precolonial Mesoamerica, cacao beans could be more than food: they also served as a means of payment. Historian Frances Berdan describes their use in markets and for paying labor; early colonial records also preserve examples of such payments. This does not mean all peoples or communities in the Americas used them in the same way.