Specialization, Market Exchange, and the Aztec State: a View Form Huexotla

Abstract

SPECIALIZATION AND EXCHANGE make good economic sense. Specialization allows for the exploitation of differences in the natural abilities of individuals and in the natural resources of geographic regions. It permits economies of scale and minimizes investment in duplicating the tools of production (Smith 1937 [1776]; Marx 1933[1867]: 355-59; Samuelson 1964:49-50). Exchange provides for the transfer of goods and services from the specialists who produce them to consumers. It is therefore essential if the benefits of specialization are to be realized.2 At the same time, however, specialization and exchange may produce economic insecurity. If any segment of producers fails to supply its customary output, or if the exchange network is disrupted, those who have come to rely upon the system will lack access to the products they normally consume. If these products are basic subsistence goods, a breakdown in the system will have serious consequences. It might be supposed, therefore, that highly developed systems of specialization and exchange will most frequently occur in association with statelevel polities-territorially extensive, administratively complex political systems in which governmental institutions monono