Teotihuacan was a mercantile empire whose luxury products were exported over a wide area and which imported raw materials from far afield.
Numerous small sites with Teotihuacan material mark the routes along which moved its merchants who, like the later Aztecs, may also have been warriors, capable of obtaining by force what they could not secure by peaceful means.
Teotihuacan's trade networks stretched as far as Kaminaljuyu in the south and Southwest North America to the north.
Obsidian was one of the main materials sought: the Pachuca mines 30 miles (50 km) north of Teotihuacan city were the source of highly prized green obsidian, but Teotihuacan also controlled the exploitation of less prestigious obsidian outcrops. Obsidian played a key role in everyday Mesoamerican life for making tools and weapons. Hundreds of workshops in the city were devoted solely to the manufacture of obsidian blades.
Teotihuacan's merchants also sought turquoise, agate and jadeite for making ritual masks and haematite (iron ore) to make mirrors worn as part of ceremonial regalia.
Other sought-after materials included cacao and copal incense (a perfumed tree resin), and probably many materials that have perished, such as cotton. Merchants from other areas, such as Oaxaca and the Maya lowlands, had their own residential areas in Teotihuacan city.
