Were there rich and poor in Aztec times?

’Definitely! Aztec society was broadly divided into nobles-by-birth and commoners (everyone else). We can safely say that nobles were generally richer than commoners. Power and wealth went hand in hand, and nobles had special rights that allowed them to amass and display great wealth: they controlled lands and the commoners who worked those lands, they received tributes in goods and services from their subjects, and they enjoyed the best jobs in the realm (like ruler, general, ambassador and tax collector).

Aztec/Mexica nobles

‘They also used a lot of it for public and ceremonial displays – for instance, inviting enemy or allied rulers to lavish feasts to show off their great wealth and power. They sponsored large building projects, paying their artisans well (not well enough to make those artisans rich, but neither were they poor). And they went about exquisitely dressed and adorned – the best way to tell who someone was in Aztec society was simply by looking at them.

Moctezuma gives gifts to poorer members of Mexica (Aztec) society

‘Hence, when the pochteca returned from a long, successful trading trip, they would sneak back into their city, at night, and conceal their rich and abundant goods. These merchants would spend their wealth on ceremonial feasts among their fellow merchants, gaining prestige and high positions within their merchant ‘guild’.

Aztec merchants returning home with goods

‘Apparently commoner farmers were able to earn or otherwise acquire such wealth, for they worked lands of different sizes and quality, had access to markets where they could obtain fancy goods, and could also win luxuries in contests or receive them as gifts. The strict sumptuary laws [laws that put limits on the luxuries you could own] of the Aztecs, however, dictated that commoners could not go about displaying these expensive objects and adornments; that was a jealously guarded right of the nobility.’

An Aztec commoner family