unt remaining amo!
             ng themselves, the poorest people who had few ties with any gentry. This was all known to the township head, yet basically overlooked, because he didn't want to compete with the powerful people and start trouble. He was not free from their power. The poverty of the lower classes was nearly inescapable unless they passed an exam whereby they could be degreed and so attain better jobs. To attain this, though, they practically had to be schooled, which was for them an unaffordable cost. In the Mexican society, the system of taxation likewise impoverished those under Montezuma, although probably not to such an extent. Those worse off were Montezuma's enemies, the Tlascalans, whom were raided frequently although they really would have preferred peace. In Tlascala, the situation was illustrated as "themselves being so poor that they did not possess a cotton cloak among them" (Diaz 170). The towns that complained about Montezuma and his tax collectors were part of his empire. Their c!
             omplain was that his "officials robbed them of all they possessed ...and... if their wives and daughters were pretty they would vio
             ...