This article is a popular account of the Late Postclassic Putun Maya along with a brief description of archaeological investigations undertaken by the authors on the island of Cozumel, off the east coast of Yucatan, Mexico. Cozumel's occupation peaked in the Late Postclassic (A.D. 1300-1500), coincident with the rise of the Putun. Because the Putun were famous as seagoing traders, it was thought that Cozumel might be a Putun trading outpost. The objective of the project was to find out how the island had been useful to the Putun traders and whether the archaeological record on Cozumel reflected the traders' mercantile culture. Huge stone platforms and causeways are salient features on Cozumel, and both are inferred to have been commercially important, the platforms in providing dry storage and the causeways by providing all weather roads. The causeways are also considered investments by the Putun in ritual. Field walls all over the island are tentatively interpreted as evidence of growing interest in private property, possibly as a result of population growth during the Late Postclassic and consequent pressure on land. False front architecture is evidence of a pragmatic interest in the trappings of prosperity by a growing merchant class. The article concludes with information about the early Spanish contacts on Cozumel, which further indicates the pragmatism of the Putun merchants.