Economy of the Inca Empire
[3] Members of an ayllu (the basic unit of socio-territorial organisation) developed various traditions of solidarity to adapt to the Andean environment.
Populations of local chiefdoms in the Inca Empire received clothes, food, health care, and schooling in exchange for their labour.
[7] The Sapa Inca governed by means of personal relations with the rulers of the local states,[8] adopting the ethnological concept of "reciprocity" or "exchange".
[10] This system of exploitation of multiple eco-zones to access resources and avoid climate catastrophes has later been named "territorial discontinuity"[13] or "vertical archipelago".
[14] All institutions of labour and social classes were founded on relations of reciprocity, the idea that "each service […] lended called for a return".
[10] According to Nathan Wachtel in La Vision des vaincus, the Inca state economy is defined as "the combination of two principles: those of reciprocity and redistribution", theoretically opposed but complementary, as "two movements, centripetal and centrifugal, define economic life: Gathering of products from the groups to the center, then distribution of the products from the center to the groups".
[16] The basis of the Andean socio-political organisation was the ayllu, a group of families united by real or mythical kin ties, and separated into a male and a female line.
[15] The socio-territorial structures were scaffoldings of chiefdoms, organized pyramidally and segmentarilly, according to interpersonal relations (individualized and institutionalized) and possession of land (owned collectively).
[20][21] The grand chiefdoms, adopting redistributive systems of reciprocal exchange, exchanging liberalities, often in the form of feasts, for workforce, allegiances, and a significant reduction of sovereignty, with the local rulers, represented the highest level of integration reached in the pre-Hispanic Andes, while the Inca Empire did not introduce an imperial-wide integration, instead governing on the basis of local hierarchies.
[23] Under the Inca Empire, officials routinely conducted a census of the male population in order to determine if labor conscription was necessary.
Individuals, including adolescents, were obligated to work in different labor capacities on a revolving basis, whether it was livestock, building, or at home.
[24] This system of work was organized within the framework of institutionalized reciprocity, the Inca emperor was united by personal relations to the regional rulers.
For this institutionalized generosity, Inca bureaucracy used a specific open space in the city's center as a social gathering place for local lords to celebrate and drink ritual beer.
[7] Collective reciprocal labor may be structured in three ways: The first was the ayni, which served to assist members and families of the society in need; the second was the minka, or collective effort for the good of the whole community, and included the construction of public works; the mita, or tribute charged to the Inca, was the third, and served as a state-wide minka rotational and temporary service, constructing important public structures, and being principally used by inca bureaucracy.
[27] This scheme required the Inca Empire to be in possession of the goods necessary for sociopolitical and economic domination, and redistribution based on need and local interests.
[28] Despite the lack of a written language, the Incas invented a system of record-keeping simple and stereotyped information based on knotted string known as quipu.
These cords were used to keep track of their stored goods, available workforce, valuable things such as maize, which was used to craft ceremonial beer,[25] and potentially historical information based on stereotyped "messages" related to oral "narrations".
[7] Over time, the Inca Empire could not be "a total stranger to systems of private exchange", and an "Andean pre-Hispanic Market developed, of which the state would have been the guarantor".
To plow, sow seeds, and later harvest the crops, individuals required additional labor prestations from the family members.
The philosophical, metaphysical principle that underpinned the concepts of "ayllus" and "minka" was known as "ayni", an ancient Andean idea of mutualism and reciprocity.
The royal road on the Andes began in Quito, Ecuador, and ended near Tucuman, Argentina, after passing through Cajamarca and Cusco.
[5] As the Incas had no horses nor wheel technology, the majority of traveling was done by foot, with llamas transporting merchandise from one section of the empire to the other.
The Incas devised strategies for navigating the Andes' rugged terrain: There were stone steps that looked like massive flights of stairs on steep slopes, and low walls were constructed in desert regions to prevent sand from drifting across the lane.
[34] In order to connect roads that crossed rivers and deep canyons in the Andes mountain range, various bridges were constructed in the Empire, with the help of natural fibers.
