State Granaries and Food Security in the Inca Empire
The state granaries of the Inca were a central feature of the imperial administration and the principal instrument of food security in the empire between the early fifteenth century and the Spanish conquest of 1532. The granaries, which took the form of thousands of storehouses, or qollqas, distributed across the empire, were used to collect, store, and redistribute agricultural production. The state granaries supported the mit’a labor system, the imperial army, the imperial cult, and the imperial administration, and they provided famine relief in years of poor harvest. The system is also one of the most extensive archaeological records of the Inca state and a central element in modern studies of the Inca economy.
The imperial storage system
The Inca imperial storage system was organized by the central state and included thousands of qollqas distributed across the empire. The system is documented in the accounts of the colonial chroniclers, in the archaeological record, and in the surviving qollqas themselves. The colonial chronicler Pedro Cieza de León, writing in the 1550s, recorded that the Inca were able to feed populations for years from the state stores, and that the system was one of the principal reasons for the resilience of the Inca state in the face of drought, frost, and other natural disasters. The system was so effective that it has been the subject of detailed study by economists and historians — and, on occasion, invoked as a model for modern food security programs, though the comparison is loose.
The imperial storage system was organized around a network of regional and local granaries. The regional granaries, such as the qollqas of Colcamayo near Juliaca and the qollqas of Tipón in the Lucre basin, were the largest in the system, with hundreds of individual storehouses and storage capacities of thousands of tons of grain. The local granaries, such as the small groups of qollqas found in the rural communities of the Andes, were smaller, with a few dozen storehouses and storage capacities of tens to hundreds of tons. The two types of granaries were integrated into a single administrative system, with the regional granaries supplying the local granaries and the local granaries supplying the population.
The state took a share of agricultural production as a tax, typically estimated at one-third of the harvest, and stored it in the qollqas. The system allowed the state to accumulate a substantial reserve of grain, and the reserve was used for several important functions of the imperial administration. The first was the support of the mit’a labor system, in which communities were required to send a proportion of their adult male population to work for the state. The workers on imperial projects were provided with food from the qollqas, and the storage system was a necessary condition for the large construction projects of the empire, including the building of Cusco, the fortress of Sacsayhuamán, the temples of the Coricancha, and the royal estates of the imperial family.
Support of the imperial army
The state granaries were a critical support for the imperial army, which was the principal instrument of Inca military power between the early fifteenth century and the Spanish conquest. The Inca army, which numbered perhaps 100,000 to 200,000 men in the largest campaigns, was organized around the mit’a system, and the soldiers were provided with food from the qollqas during campaigns. The granaries were placed near important agricultural areas, near major roads, and at the frontiers of the empire, and they allowed the army to operate in regions that could not otherwise have supported large numbers of men.
The granaries of the southern frontier, in particular, were an important part of the military infrastructure of the empire. The southern frontier, which extended into present-day Chile and Argentina, was a region of relatively low agricultural production, and the granaries were used to support the garrisons stationed along the frontier and the armies that campaigned in the region. The qollqas of Colcamayo, in the department of Puno, were the largest of the frontier granaries, and they supplied the armies that campaigned in the south.
The granaries also supported the campaigns of the Inca civil war of 1529–1532, in which the half-brothers Huáscar and Atahualpa fought for the succession after the death of Huayna Capac. The war was fought across the length of the empire, and the granaries were a critical supply line for both sides. The victory of Atahualpa and the subsequent capture of the empire by the Spanish in 1532 disrupted the granary system, and the Spanish made use of the surviving qollqas to supply their own armies and administrations in the early colonial period.
Famine relief and the imperial cult
The state granaries were used to provide famine relief in years of poor harvest. The Inca state opened the qollqas in years of drought, frost, or other natural disasters and distributed the stored grain to the affected population. The system was remarkably effective, and the chronicles record several instances in which the state was able to feed populations through extended periods of poor harvest. The system was also used to support communities in the aftermath of earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters, and it was a key element in the social and economic resilience of the Andean communities.
The granaries also supported the imperial cult, including the maintenance of the temples, the aqllakuna (the chosen women who lived in cloisters in the major cities), and the ritual calendar. The state provided food for the temples and their personnel, and the granaries were an important part of the imperial religious system. The qollqas were typically built near important religious sites, including the temples of the Coricancha, the royal estates of Machu Picchu and Ollantaytambo, and the religious centers of the provinces.
The state granaries were, in effect, the principal instrument of food security in the empire — accumulating reserves, feeding armies, supporting temples, and stepping in against famine. The system was a major reason for the resilience of the Inca economy in the face of natural disasters and military campaigns.
The administration of the system
The state granaries were administered by the qollqa camayoc, the master craftsmen in charge of the storehouses. The qollqa camayoc held positions of high status, and the storage system was one of the most important features of the imperial administration. The qollqa camayoc kept the storehouses in repair, recorded the stocks (in some cases using quipus), and released grain to the population in years of need.
The distribution of the stored grain was organized by a system of turns, in which each community in the region was allocated a specific time at which it could receive a share of the stored grain. The system was administered by the local ayllu, the kinship group, and the qollqa camayoc of the central administration supervised the distribution. The system was remarkably efficient, and the distribution of grain was generally equitable, with disputes being resolved by the local authorities and by the central administration of the empire.
The state granaries were also an important element in the imperial accounting system. The qollqa camayoc recorded the stocks of grain, the distribution of grain to the population, and the receipt of grain from the agricultural communities, and the records were integrated with the broader system of imperial administration. The records, which were kept on quipus, allowed the central administration to track the stocks of grain across the empire and to plan the distribution of grain in years of poor harvest.