http://www.crystalinks.com/mayan.html

I have used both of these websites for an anthropology class for a paper on the Mayan Civilizaton. These are really good sites.

Hope they help.

Because of the readily available resources in most of the Maya territory, small towns did not need to take part in long-distance trading and limited trade to local bartering and exchange. Despite the fact that the area was rich in resources, even the most self-sufficient farm families, which were the vast majority of the population, still had to participate in exchanges in order to obtain the necessities (the necessities would generally include some pottery, stone tools, and salt). The craftsmen in the small cities who specialized in the production of pottery and stone tools would also have to use their goods to barter for food.

As many of the Maya civilization’s cities began to grow, so did the need for increased trade. Cities such as Tikal and El Mirador are two such examples. Tikal, specifically, had a population somewhere in the range of 60,000-120,000 people, which means it would have needed to get food and other goods from up to 100 km away. Because of the size of these cities, they would have also needed a larger amount of control from the Rulers to oversee it. Eventually the increased trade, and growing cities gave the Rulers more power over their territory and their subjects.