A pochteca was a traveling merchant in the Aztec Empire. Pochtecas also are known to have traveled outside the empire to trade with neighboring kingdoms and peoples throughout Mesoamerica. Because of their extensive travel and knowledge of the empire, they were often employed as spies. The Pochtecas were a special merchant class in the Aztec society that specialized in long-distance trade on luxury items. They controled the great market at Tlatelolco. The pochtecas were mainly made up of the priests and warriors and they usually had their own separate section of the city in which to live in. They had their own guilds and often had special priviledges that other classes were not given.