ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that Cahokia is the capital of the "Ramey" state, and as an example of a very early state its economic system is important. Subsistence at Cahokia and sites in the American Bottom, its basic economy, was built upon agricultural production stressing corn and squash cultivars. The unskilled workers without doubt built the hundreds of earthen mounds found throughout the American Bottom as well as the ceremonial structures and the residences of the elites. Evidence of a class of traders among the descendents of the Middle Mississippians is reported historically and is summarized in William E. Myer's monumental study of Indian trails in the southeastern United States. The concept of tribute has a number of meanings, but fundamentally it involves a reoccurring payment of a sum of money or other valuable goods by one people to the ruler of another people. It is different from taxes because taxes are paid by citizens to their government.
