Chocolate as a Symbol of Wealth and Power

In its early history, chocolate was greatly prized and therefore was sought and kept by the aristocracy. The famous South America emperor, Montezuma, had a vast hoard of cocoa beans to seal his royalty. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in South America determined to carry off its finest treasures, they soon found – to their bemusement – that the native people considered cocoa beans to be their most important treasure by far.