Did You Know?... - Fact Of The Day #20
Chocolate Currency?
Did you know that the Aztecs used cacao beans as a form of currency? It was also used as a tribute tax. In the marketplace, if you wanted to buy a small rabbit, it would cost you up to 30 beans. If you wanted to buy a single large tomato, it would have cost 1 bean. A single turkey egg would have cost 3 beans. Larger purchases could cost you up to 700 beans. If you wanted to buy quachtli (cotton cloth), you could spend between 65-300 beans, depending on the quality of the quachtli. A 1.37lb (0.62kg) gold statue would have cost about 250 beans. Cacao played a significant religious role among the Aztecs. Some people would try and make counterfeit cacao beans by using wax or amaranth dough (still probably worth more than fiat, haha!)
I don't think cacao beans would last as a currency nowadays. Not because of value purposes, but because everyone would want to consume it, haha!
Courtesy of waystocap.com
Yes, I'll say little about this crop. Cocoa in Nigeria is the number 1 cash crop the country depends upon for more than 55years,before crude oil was discovered in her wells. Cocoa has played a vital role in the economy and the route of transactions among her country neighbors, exportation of cocoa still in existence in Nigeria upto this morning. That's just in international standards, but cocoa is very important and useful at its local level among the indigenous, cocoa seeds and its pods are essential. For example, the pod is used to make local soap called (black soap).
Nigeria has a particular building constructed majorly for cocoa business, located in Ibadan, Oyo state Nigeria.
This building is the tallest in Nigeria. COCOA HOUSE
Thanks for sharing your information :)
I would be rich and eat rabbit for days xD
Well, that is an strange of history because I haven't heard about cocoa currency. But, I surely say they are one of most beneficial and healthiest beans. I have found few benefits on http://science4fun.info/cocoa-beans/
i love Chocolate and that is a gread post
I would not wonder if someone makes chocolate ICO anytime soon. Didnt they already made even a pizza ICO ? :D
that is very nice...I want to eat it,,hihihhi
keep sharing, more power!
Well, you sent me down a 4 hour chocolate rabbit hole, where I found https://chocolatealchemy.myshopify.com/collections/cocoa-beans
What a cool guy...he has a youtube channel on how to make chocolate from raw beans to finished too.
Thank you!!! The best info road trip I had in a while :)
A single bean seems to weigh about 1.25 grams using some of the numbers of wikipedia (they don't list it precisely, and you can get a rather wide range 0.8-1.75 depending on what numbers you use to estimate..). I found a bag of ~362 beans (493 grams) for $12 online, about 3.3 cents per bean! Currently, 0.62kg of gold is worth $26600 or 802,433 beans! That's 3209% as many beans as before. Interesting how much things change.
I love posts like these :)
Thanks for that excellent share . I’m a strong believer in trade and barter as currency , and I don’t think its being discussed enough . Funny factoid Ronald Reagan wanted to outlaw trade and barter along with things like garage sales with his ridiculous reason being that people were getting away from paying taxes . Yeah what a communist shill he really was hum .♥️✌🏼👊🏻
I m not surprise, cocoa is valuable it ca-n be use as curency