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large armory, called the tlacochcalco. It was filled with weapons made and deposited there each year:
90 conquistador Andrés de Tápia estimated the armory's capacity at five hundred cartloads.91 The symbol of an armory was any of several weapons secured above each door.92 |
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There were also two armories in the king's palace in which skilled craftsmen and armorers produced the weapons, with royal stewards overseeing them.93 Apparently, one building was a factory in which specialized production was carried out by a range of craftsmen, while the other was a repository.94 |
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The distinction between the two types of armoriesthose in the royal palace and those associated with the templesapparently reflects the way different grades of warriors were equipped. Since each town or calpolli was responsible for its own armaments, there were doubtless as many armories dispersed throughout the city and countryside as there were towns and calpolli, and it was to these that the commoners flocked for arms in the event of war. The armories located in the king's palace, on the other hand, apparently supplied the nobility and the military orders, since these groups were housed in the palace and owed primary allegiance to the king rather than to the calpolli. |
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Arms were also available in Tenochtitlan's marketplace,95 although the demand for such goods must have been small. The military items available there were elaborate and highly decorated,96 as the marketplace largely served the elite warriors, including the nobles, who sought sumptuous goods for status rather than functional purposes. |
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Some lands (milchimalli or cacalomilli) in all the towns were set aside to produce war supplies.97 The Aztec king summoned these supplies from all over the empire, though usually from areas adjacent to Tenochtitlan. Arms and food were gathered for the journey, as well as all the other supplies needed by an army in the field.98 The king ordered the people to prepare food, supplies, and arms. Each calpolli and subject town provided foodmaize cakes, maize flour, toasted maize, beans, salt, chili, pumpkin seeds, and pinollias well as equipment for the journey.99 In Tenochtitlan preparing the |
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