Economic relationships in Pre-Columbian Mexico show that Aztec rulers were ruthless exploiters

Spanish conquerors did not themselves bring inequality to the Aztec lands they invaded, they merely built on the socio-economic structure that was already in place, adapting it as it suited their plans. This is the subject of an article by Guido Alfani of Bocconi's Department of Social and Political Sciences and Alfonso Carballo of NEOMA Business School in France. Their article, "Income and inequality in the Aztec Empire on the eve of the Spanish conquest," has just been published in Nature Human Behaviour.