Ancient Mexico Facts

The arrival of the Spaniards led to many changes in transportation and communication in Mexico, but neither as immediate nor as complete as might be expected. Although the Spaniards introduced both draft animals and wheels, transportation largely continued in the pre-Columbia mold during the early colonial period. True, pack animals and wagons were more efficient than tlameme transport, both in terms of pounds moved and people required. For instance, mules in the colonial period carried loads of approximately 250 pounds each, and there was typically 1 arriero (mule driver) per 4 or 5 mules, so 1 arriero could transport the same load as 20 to 25 tlamemes. Similarly, a carreta (the basic freight wagon) pulled by 2 oxen (with a 3rd as reserve) could haul 1,000 pounds, though only for about 10 to 12 miles per day. A larger freight wagon, the carro, which required a team of 16 mules, could haul up to 4,000 pounds.

Nevertheless, horses, mules, oxen, and wagons did not displace the tlamemes immediately or uniformly for a variety of reasons. First, livestock remained scarce and expensive in Mexico until the 1550s, as West Indian producers struggled to keep their monopoly. Thus, even those who might have wanted livestock for hauling could not afford them. Second, neither wagons nor pack teams could travel anywhere at will. Livestock were only the most obvious element of transportation systems that included roads, inns, and suitable reed and water, and many of the roads plied by tlamemes were unsuited to wheels and pack animals. Constructed for foot traffic, indigenous roads stressed directness over gradient: the relative inefficiency of human porters meant that it was more important to shorten travel time rather than to ease the route selected. In an effort to shorten the journey, indigenous roads crossed ravines, scaled gradients, and generally traversed areas that pack animals could not. So even if greater numbers of pack animals and wagons had been available at the time of the Conquest, they still could not have displaced the tlamemes. The widespread displacement of indigenous systems of transportation by Spanish ones was delayed by the financial demands of doing so, in terms of livestock, wagons, inns, new roads, and the hiring of expensive Spanish labor. Given the enormous numbers of Indians available, it made more sense simply to use Indian labor—free, forced, or undercompensated—to transport goods in the traditional way than to make the capital investments necessary to shift completely to a Spanish system.

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