Archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence demonstrate the tremendous economic value of cloth throughout Mesoamerica since the Classic period. Lengths of cotton cloth, carved and polished greenstone beads, beads of red spiny oyster shell, measures of salt, and cacao beans, were used as units of economic exchange and tribute during the Classic period in the Maya Lowlands (Schele 1990:92-3).

A cylinder vase from the San Acasaguastlan Region, Guatemala (File No. K558) illustrates the use of cloth as tribute. A royal captive with quetzal feather headdress kneels in submission before a ruler wearing a spangled headdress with water lilies. Two attendants that stand behind the captive hold armloads of batik print cloth. There are also two bundles of cloth draped on the throne of the seated ruler. The cloth is being presented to the enthroned ruler as a bounty of war or a tribute offering (Reents-Budet 1994:346-7).

Written accounts such as Hernan Cortes' first letter to King Charles V of Spain indicate the importance of cloth in Mesoamerica during the Post-Classic. During the first encounter of Hernan Cortes and the Aztecs, the Spanish conqueror was presented with gifts, which were carefully recorded and itemized in Spanish accounts. These items included gold and silver jewelry, two native books, gold dust and gold nuggets, two enormous wheels, animal skins, and elaborate textiles. According to Indian legends, however, the Aztec emperor sent only clothing: the traditional attire of three major deities (Ananwalt 1981: 3, Pagden 1986:40-46).

The Codex Mendoza, a manuscript written by native scribes per request of Viceroy Mendoza, reveals that tribute was regularly extracted from towns conquered by the Triple Alliance in the Valley of Mexico during the Post-Classic. Some of the items included mantles, loincloths, huipiles, skirts, and limb-encasing warrior costumes, feather headdresses, shields, and cloth of different sizes (Sayer 1985: 16-17).

The sixteenth century Franciscan bishop, Diego de Landa, recounts that the Yucatec Maya lower class was obligated to pay tribute to the halach uinic or local lords and to the gods though priests. Some of these objects were vegetables, domesticated fowl, salt, dried fish, and pati. Pati was a woven cotton cloth of fixed length and width. According to Morley and Brainerd, patis were the principle form of tribute exacted by the Spanish (Morley 1983:447).