Supply on Command

I would like to acknowledge the scholars whose work I am totally summarizing here: G. Urton, D. LaLone, T. LeVine, T. D'Altroy.

The Inca Empire was (as far as I know) unique in the world in that there was no major market system. LaLone has shown that there may have been a market economy on the outskirts of the empire, particularly in the north, but at the heart of Tawantinsuyu there was no major commercial system of exchange.

The Andes contain many different environmental zones, each with its own animals, plants, and resources. The way the Andean peoples exploited this environment was with the ayllu system. An ayllu is a family or clan group. Each group would have a "place of origin" where the family was centered, and would send small detachments of members off to live in a different environmental zone. At certain times in the year, groups living along the coastal desert, in the foothills, in the depths of the rain forest, and in the mountains would all gather in their place of origin to exchange their respective resources. Thus without money, without markets, and without bartering, each family is able to take full advantage of the varied terrain of the Andes.

Granted, there was some limited exchange of specialized goods, but ideally each ayllu was more or less autonomous. So how does one run an empire if everyone is self-sufficient? You control their labor.

When the Inca conquered a new territory, they divided up the land into three parts: that of the people, that of the state, and that of the state religion. The people were allowed to farm their land first, but then worked the land of the state and the land of the state religion. Storehouses for state goods and foodstuffs were built by the thousands all over the region, and were so full that they did not run out for more than twenty years after the Spanish invaded.

The interesting part: most of the goods never moved. When the army was in Chinchaysuyu, they lived on the local supplies of that district's storehouses. If they were in Antisuyu, they used those supplies. And when an area was rebellious, the state would take an entire ayllu from an area loyal to the Inca and move them hundreds of miles to "infiltrate" and settle in the rebellious territory. The Inca moved people rather than goods.*

I have never seen a system so "backwards" to our own economy (and that of the entire ancient "Old World"). The most amazing part: the Inca empire only existed for roughly a hundred years before the Spanish conquest. Their elaborate system of labor and population rotation was just getting started. We will never know if their continued expansion would have killed the market systems of the north or if they would have incorporated these systems into their empire.

*Not only did the rich and varied environment encourage this, the Inca did not use wheeled carts to transport things. Goods were carried on the backs of men or llamas, but mostly men. If the capital, Cuzco, needed specialized goods, they simply brought the craftsmen to Cuzco for a few months after the harvest was taken care of. People were easier to move than goods.