History

I am writing this post because the first chapter of The American Holocaust is starting to sink in. A massive civilization with a huge population for the times was already living in the Americas. If you could define a capital city of the Americas, then Tenochtitlan would be it. In 1519 under Montezuma it boasted a population of over two hundred thousand, over twice that of London at the time. Below is a map of Tenochtitlan which is claimed to be the work of Cortez:

cortez map of tenochtitlan

It was a city of great intrigue, and Cortez actually gave up trying to describe it in his letter to King Charles V regarding the city of Tenochtitlan:

I shall not be able to relate an hundredth part of what could be told respecting these matters; but I will endeavor to describe, in the best manner in my power, what I have myself seen ; and imperfectly as I may succeed in the attempt, I am fully aware that the account will appear so wonderful as to be deemed scarcely worthy of credit ; since even we who have seen these things with our own eyes, are yet so amazed as to be unable to comprehend their reality.

On Commerce in the City

The description of how commerce occurred in the city is best told by the first hand witness:

This city has many public squares, in which are situated the markets and other places for buying and selling. There is one square twice as large as that of the city of Salamanca, surrounded by porticoes, where are daily assembled more than sixty thousand souls, engaged in buying and selling ; and where are found all kinds of merchandise that the world affords, embracing the necessaries of life, as for instance articles of food, as well as jewels of gold and silver, lead, brass, copper, tin, precious stones, bones, shells, snails, and feathers. There are also exposed for sale wrought and unwrought stone, bricks burnt and unburnt, timber hewn and unhewn, of different sorts. There is a street for game, where every variety of birds found in the country are sold, as fowls, partridges, quails, wild ducks, fly-catchers, widgeons, turtle-doves, pigeons, reedbirds, parrots, sparrows, eagles, hawks, owls, and kestrels ; they sell likewise the skins of some birds of prey, with their feathers, head, beak, and claws. There are also sold rabbits, hares, deer, and little dogs, which are raised for eating and castrated. There is also an herb street, where may be obtained all sorts of roots and medicinal herbs that the country affords. There are apothecaries’ shops, where prepared medicines, liquids, ointments, and plasters are sold; barbers’ shops, where they wash and shave the head ; and restaurateurs, that furnish food and drink at a certain price. There is also a class of men like those called in Castile porters, for carrying burthens. Wood and coals are seen in abundance, and brasiers of earthenware for burning coals ; mats of various kinds for beds, others of a lighter sort for seats, and for halls and bedrooms. There are all kinds of green vegetables, especially onions, leeks, garlic, watercresses, nasturtium, borage, sorel, artichokes, and golden thistle ; fruits also of numerous descriptions, amongst which are cherries and plums, similar to those in Spain ; honey and wax from bees, and from the stalks of maize, which are as sweet as the sugar-cane; honey is also extracted from the plant called maguey, which is superior to sweet or new wine ; from the same plant they extract sugar and wine, which they also sell. Different kinds of cotton thread of all colors in skeins are exposed for sale in one quarter of the market, which has the appearance of the silk-market at Granada, although the former is supplied more abundantly. Painters’ colors, as numerous as can be found in Spain, and as fine shades; deerskins dressed and undressed, dyed different colors; earthenware of a large size and excellent quality; large and small jars, jugs, pots, bricks, and an endless variety of vessels, all made of fine clay, and all or most of them glazed and painted ; maize, or Indian corn, in the grain and in the form of bread, preferred in the grain for its flavor to that of the other islands and terra-firma ; patés of birds and fish ; great quantities of fish, fresh, salt, cooked and uncooked ; the eggs of hens, geese, and of all the other birds I have mentioned, in great abundance, and cakes made of eggs;, finally, every thing that can be found throughout the whole country is sold in the markets, comprising articles so numerous that to avoid prolixity, and because their names are not retained in my memory, or are unknown to me, I shall not attempt to enumerate them. Every kind of merchandise is sold in a particular street or quarter assigned to it exclusively, and thus the best order is preserved. They sell every thing by number or measure, at least so far we have not observed them to sell any thing by weight. There is a building in the great square that is used as an audience house, where ten or, twelve persons, who are magistrates, sit and decide all controversies that arise in the market, and order delinquents to be punished. In the same square there are other persons who go constantly about among the people observing what is sold, and the measures used in selling; and they have been seen to break measures that were not true.

On Religion

This great city contains a large number of temples, or houses for their idols, very handsome edifices, which are situated in the different districts and the suburbs ; in the principal ones religious persons of each particular sect are constantly residing, for whose use beside the houses containing the idols there are other convenient habitations. All these persons dress in black, and never cut or comb their hair from the time they enter the priesthood until they leave it ; and all the sons of the principal inhabitants, both nobles and respectable citizens, are placed in the temples and wear the same dress from the age of seven or eight years until they are taken out to be married; which occurs more frequently with the first-born who inherit estates than with the others. The priests are debarred from female society, nor is any woman permitted to enter the religious houses. They also abstain from eating certain kinds of food, more at some seasons of the year than others. Among these temples there is one which far surpasses all the rest, whose grandeur of architectural details no human tongue is able to describe ; for within its precincts, surrounded by a lofty wall, there is room enough for a town of five hundred families. Around the interior of this enclosure there are handsome edifices, containing large halls and corridors, in which the religious persons attached to the temple reside. There are full forty towers, which are lofty and well built, the largest of which has fifty steps leading to its main body, and is higher than the tower of the principal church at Seville. The stone and wood of which they are constructed are so well wrought in every part, that nothing could be better done, for the interior of the chapels containing the idols consists of curious imagery, wrought in stone, with plaster ceilings, and wood-work carved its relief, and painted with figures of monsters and other objects. All these towers are the burial places of the nobles, and every chapel in them is dedicated to a particular idol, to which they pay their devotions.

On Dwellings

This noble city contains many fine and magnificent houses; which may be accounted for from the fact, that all the nobility of the country, who are the vassals of Muteczuma, have houses in the city, in which they reside a certain part of the year ; and besides, there are numerous wealthy citizens who also possess fine houses. All these persons, in addition to the large and spacious apartments for ordinary purposes, have others, both upper and lower, that contain conservatories of flowers. Along one of the causeways that lead into the city are laid two pipes, constructed of masonry, each of which is two paces in width, and about five feet in height. An abundant supply of excellent water, forming a volume equal in bulk to the human body, is conveyed by one of these pipes, and distributed about the city, where it is used by the inhabitants for drinking and other purposes. The other pipe, in the mean time, is kept empty until the former requires to be cleansed, when the water is let into it and continues to be used till the cleansing is finished. As the water is necessarily carried over bridges on account of the salt water crossing its route, reservoirs resembling canals are constructed on the bridges, through which the fresh water is conveyed. These reservoirs are of the breadth of the body of an ox, and of the same length as the bridges. The whole city is thus served with water, which they carry in canoes through all the streets for sale, taking it from the aquaduct in the following manner: the canoes pass under the bridges on which the reservoirs are placed, when men stationed above fill them with water, for which service they are paid. At all the entrances of the city, and in those parts where the canoes are discharged, that is, where the greatest quantity of provisions is brought in, huts are erected, and persons stationed as guards, who receive a certum quid of every thing that enters. I know not whether the sovereign receives this duty or the city, as I have not yet been informed ; but I believe that it appertains to the sovereign, as in the markets of other provinces a tax is collected for the benefit of their cacique. In all the markets and public places of this city are seen daily many laborers and persons of various employments waiting for some one to hire them. The inhabitants of this city pay a greater regard to style in their mode of living, and are more attentive to elegance of dress and politeness of manners, than those of the other provinces and cities ; since, as the Cacique Muteczuma has his residence in the capital, and all the nobility, his vassals, are in the constant habit of meeting there, a general courtesy of demeanor necessarily prevails. But not to be prolix in describing what relates to the affairs of this great city, although it is with difficulty I refrain from proceeding, I will say no more than that the manners of the people, as shown in their intercourse with one another, are marked by as great an atttention to the proprieties of life as in Spain, and good order is equally well observed; and considering that they are a barbarous people, without the knowledge of God, having no intercourse with civilized nations, these traits of character are worthy of admiration.

Players

Hernán Cortés

Hernán Cortés led the expeditionary force into the Aztec Empire, and was able to capture Montezuma and claim his land for Spain.

Leader of the Aztecs Montezuma II

Montezuma II reigned over the Aztec Empire at its apex, and also lived during its capture but died before it’s demise. It was thanks to his generosity and non agression that he was captured by Cortez’s men.

On September 11th 2001 I was in Shanghai, China and everything was fine. I had school that day, and would have school the next day as well. The morning of the 12th I heard the news, two planes had destroyed the World Trade Center towers. I was overcome with anger, and from then on followed closely the events that followed.

I remember watching the Taliban being shown on TV a few days later being ordered to give up Osama, which they did not do. In class there was one person who said the US deserved what happened, and I considered showing the ‘person’ what it meant to feel pain, but reconsidered because #1 it was a girl and #2 it wasn’t worth it.

Those people who get by month by month on a fixed income should know that the way that the economy is being restored will, in fact, help corporations and banks and get things back in order. However, the way the bailout is structured simply leaves no doubt behind that your dollars will be worth less in a short amount of time.

Think about it like this, banks are going under because of speculation on the prices of real estate, and the easy ways people had of acquiring loans and mortgages, all the while not being able to actually pay them back thanks to a variety of reasons. Money, which traditionally held value thanks to actually backing in gold and silver, can now be easily created using a press of a mouse button. The Internet has also created an easy way to shop, where consumers can spend money they don’t have easily and conveniently from the comfort of their own home. The average savings was abhorrently low, and most people were barely getting by on each pay check.

The result was what we now call the credit crunch, as money had vanished as speculative wealth was evaporated as prices readjusted after the bubble had popped. Some banks went under, but most major banks were given bailouts, large sums of money (in the billions), and the government decided to buy out bad assets. The burden of this bailout was placed on the taxpayer and an increase in the money supply to help alleviate the credit crunch. Interest rates were lowered to about zero, and wild programs such as ‘cash for clunkers’ were hurriedly enacted.

The problem with all this spending and the bailout plan is that the exit strategy is flawed. They plan to simply remove capital (cash) from the system after it recovers. How exactly are they going to do that? Instead, we will see a great increase in prices of oil, food, and other commodities as what more any more seems like ‘play money’ is injected into the system.

How do you protect yourself from this? As the old saying goes, if you can’t beat them, join them. Most of the people making these policy decisions have more than average savings and investments. Investments in the stock market especially in banks would be particularly lucrative as they are the ones that are being handed literally tons of cash, other investments include oil futures and commodities. It causes those who earn mediocre salaries that do not allow for savings to be at a disadvantage, as they are being left out on the beneficial side of inflation and government hand outs and instead on the disadvantageous position of slowly learning less real value per month.

As John Maynard Keynes puts it,

By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens…. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.