FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - cost of producing a goblet of Montezuma's cocoa beverage?

Matt Giwer

wrote:
> Cortes reported that Montezuma drank 50 goblets of (non-sweetened)
> cocoa beverage before entering his harem.

> a goblet of cocoa was expensive to make in pre-mechanized society.
> Even if the laborers were nominally slaves, they had to be fed,
> clothed, housed, etc. In fact, the houseservants of a sovereign are
> normally well kept.

> Is it possible to estimate an equivelant 2007 value of a goblet of
> Monteuma's cocoa drink?

One presumes what about the nature of the drink? Was it made from the bean? Did
it contain leaves? How was it prepared? One presumes it was whatever they
considered the best quality but we have no idea what they thought that was. If
we are just talking the bean the preparation is trivial independent of the
quality of the bean. Consider it like gourmet coffee. Other than civet coffee it
is all the same process.

And then who made it? The cost would be the cost of keeping that person
employed or alive or whatever. Clearly it would cost more if a priest made it
than a slave but it could have been a cheap apprentice priest and slave for
display who had to be kept in expensive clothing to show of the emperor wealth.

And a dozen other factors such as did the great beans grow in his backyard or
in the farthest reaches of the empire?

All of this means we may never know what it cost. And if my some miracle we
found all the factors above translating that into dollars would be near
impossible because the basis for the economy was entirely different. In a
well-run economy slaves cost more than share-croppers. In a hierarchical system
with great rewards at the top an apprentice priest may work for scraps for the
opportunity.

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