Mayans Employed Market-Based Economics

Maya people traded products for more than 500 years in the highlands of central Guatemala, with little interference from their kings.

According to a recent study published in the journal Latin American Antiquity¹, the Mayan K'iche' elite in power had a hands-off attitude to controlling the trade and acquisition of obsidian by those outside of their area of central control. Locals in these regions controlled access to adjacent supplies of obsidian, a glass-like rock used to build tools …