page_title: Muisca economy
section_title: Colonial period
hierarchical_section_title: Muisca economy / Colonial period
caption_attribution_description: English: Part of the Codex Kingsborough, an indigenous Mexican complaint against an abusive encomendero.
context_page_description: The Muisca were the original inhabitants of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, the high plateau in the Eastern Ranges of central present-day Colombia. Their rich economy and advanced merchant abilities were widely known by the indigenous groups of the area and described by the Spanish conquistadores whose primary objective was the acquisition of the mineral resources of Tierra Firme; gold, emeralds, carbon, silver and copper.
  The Muisca economy was self-sufficient regarding the basic supplies, thanks to the advanced technologies of the agriculture on raised terraces by the people. The system of trade was well established providing both the higher social classes and the general population abundances of gold, feathers, marine snails, coca, yopo and other luxury goods. Markets were held every four to eight days in various settlements throughout the Muisca Confederation and special markets were organised around festivities where merchants from far outside the Andes were trading their goods with the Muisca.
  Apart from agriculture, the Muisca were well developed in the production of different crafts, using the raw materials traded with surrounding indigenous peoples.
context_section_description: Soon after the arrival of the Spanish, a system of encomenderos was installed in the New Kingdom of Granada, as Colombia was called after 1537, where the caciques of the Muisca settlements were forced to pay tributes to the Spanish every six months. The previously self-sustaining economy was quickly transformed into intensive agriculture and mining that created a change in the landscape and culture of the Muisca. The indigenous inhabitants were forced to work the farmlands and mines for the Spanish, who imported slaves from Africa in addition to the Muisca labour. The European settlers used the Muisca economy, where gold was exchanged for cotton, salt, emeralds, mantles and other products to avoid paying the quinta real tax to the Spanish crown, which was based on gold. Where the first settlers required the Muisca chiefs to pay their tributes to the new reign in gold, later payments were done using the replacement products that were then changed to gold at the markets of Pamplona and Mariquita. In 1558, 20 years after the victory of the Spanish conquistadores over the Muisca, a letter to the Spanish crown revealed that more than 11,000 pesos were lost per year in evaded tax payments due to the system of trade via other products than gold.
caption: A Spanish encomendero abusing an indigenous American person
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