Muisca economy

The **Muisca Confederation** was the confederation of Muisca rulers predating the current departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá

This article describes the economy of the Muisca. 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. Famous are the golden and tumbaga objects made by the Muisca. Cotton mantles, cloths and nets were made by the Muisca women and traded for valuable goods, tropical fruits and small cotton cloths were used as money. The Muisca were unique in South America for having real coins of gold, called tejuelos.

Mining was an important source of income for the Muisca, who were called "The Salt People" because of their salt mines in Zipaquirá, Nemocón and Tausa. Like their western neighbours, the Muzo -who were called "The Emerald People"- they mined emeralds in their territories, mainly in Somondoco. Carbon was found throughout the region of the Muisca in Eocene sediments and used for the fires for cooking and the production of salt and golden ornaments.

As the clear objective of the Spanish colonisers was to gain access to the rich mineral resources and the golden figures made by the Muisca, many primary accounts of the Muisca economy have been considered biased, misinterpreted or even outright false by later scholars. Pedro de Aguado, Pedro Simón, Juan de Castellanos, Juan de los Barrios, first conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada and many others have written about the economy of the Muisca. Later research, in many cases nuancing or even refuting the scriptures of the early Spanish writers, has been conducted by Carl Henrik Langebaek, Marianne Cardale de Schrimpff, Sylvia Broadbent, Jorge Gamboa Mendoza, Javier Ocampo López and others.