Tribute and Redistribution in the Inca Empire

The economy of the Inca Empire was organized around a system of tribute and redistribution rather than market exchange. Goods and labor flowed from the provinces to the imperial center at Cusco, and from there they were redistributed according to rank, religious obligation, and economic need. The system was administered by a hierarchy of officials, recorded on quipus, and supported by a network of state granaries and storehouses (qollqa) distributed across the empire. The Spanish chronicler Pedro Cieza de León, in the second part of his Crónica del Perú (1553), described the system as “a thing to marvel at,” and the system has been studied in detail by modern economic historians, including John Murra, María Rostworowski, and Tom Zuidema.

The Structure of Tribute

Tribute in the Inca Empire took the form of goods, labor, and services, and it was organized through a hierarchy of obligations that linked the imperial center to the provincial and district administrations. Each province was required to deliver a quota of goods and labor to the central administration each year, and the quota was determined by the province’s population, the fertility of its lands, and the specialties of its inhabitants. The chroniclers describe a system of periodic inspection (tokrikuy) in which officials sent from Cusco checked the accuracy of the tribute lists, the condition of the roads and storehouses, and the conduct of the provincial officials.

The list of tribute items was encyclopedic. The Spanish chronicler Bernabé Cobo recorded that the imperial state received maize, potatoes, and quinoa from agricultural provinces; llamas and alpacas from pastoral provinces; cloth and clothing from textile-producing provinces; gold, silver, and copper from mining provinces; dried fish, guano, and spondylus shells from the coast; feathers, coca, and medicinal plants from the eastern lowlands; and labor from all provinces.

Cloth as a Medium of Exchange

Cloth played a particularly important role in the Inca economy, and it served as a primary medium of state remuneration, exchange, and record. The imperial state produced a standardized system of cloth types graded by fineness, and officials were paid in cloth according to their rank. The Spanish chronicler Bernabé Cobo recorded that the finest cloth, the q’ompi or cumbi, was reserved for the Inca and the highest nobility. Coarser grades of cloth, including the awaska and the q’arwa, were used for ordinary purposes, including the payment of mit’a laborers and the equipping of armies.

The standardization of cloth types allowed the imperial state to use cloth as a kind of currency. The Spanish chronicler Pedro Cieza de León recorded that the Sapa Inca paid his officials in cloth, and that the officials in turn used the cloth to pay the laborers and artisans who worked for them. The system was, in effect, a form of payment in kind, and it allowed the imperial state to maintain a closed economy in which the use of coinage and market exchange were not necessary.

The production of cloth was a major state enterprise. The acllawasi (the houses of the chosen women) housed young women who were selected from across the empire and who wove cloth, brewed chicha (maize beer), and performed other services for the state. The Spanish chronicler Guaman Poma de Ayala, in his Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno (c. 1615), included detailed illustrations of the acllawasi and described the work of the chosen women in some detail.

State Storehouses and Granaries

The produce of the tribute and mit’a systems was stored in a network of state granaries and storehouses (qollqa) distributed across the empire. The qollqa were built in the imperial style, with stone or adobe walls, thatched or stone roofs, and ventilation systems designed to keep the contents cool and dry. The largest qollqa were located in the major provincial centers, but smaller qollqa were established at intervals along the Qhapaq Ñan and at strategic points in the agricultural landscape. The Spanish chronicler Pedro Sancho de la Hoz, who accompanied Pizarro on his second expedition in 1534, described the state granaries at Cusco in terms that emphasize their scale:

The granaries of the Inca are so large and well-filled that they could feed all the people of the city for many months, and there are many such granaries scattered across the empire, so that the poor and the soldiers are fed from them.

The qollqa served several functions. They stored the produce of the state lands and the tribute delivered by the provinces; they served as a buffer against crop failure, famine, and military emergency; and they provided the material basis for the imperial system of redistribution.

Redistribution

The imperial state redistributed the goods it received through several channels:

Support of the royal household: the Sapa Inca and the royal court consumed a substantial portion of the imperial surplus.
Support of the bureaucracy: the imperial officials were paid in cloth, food, and (in some cases) access to land and labor.
Support of the army: the Inca army was supported by the state granaries.
Support of the priesthood: the temples of the empire, particularly the Coricancha in Cusco, received lands, livestock, and labor.
Support of the poor: the imperial state maintained a system of redistribution to the poor, particularly in times of famine or crop failure.

The system of redistribution was, in effect, a form of social welfare, and it was one of the most distinctive features of the Inca state.

Records and Administration

The tribute and redistribution system was administered by a hierarchy of officials and recorded on quipus. The quipucamayocs (keepers of the quipus) were a distinct class of officials who served at the court of the Sapa Inca, in the regional capitals, and in the provinces. They were trained from youth in the interpretation of quipus, and they were responsible for recording the affairs of the empire: the census, the tribute lists, the military rosters, the storehouse inventories, and the historical narratives. The chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega recorded that the quipucamayocs were organized in a hierarchy parallel to the administrative hierarchy, with quipucamayocs for each household unit, each district, each province, and the empire as a whole.

The Specialization of Provinces

The tribute and redistribution system was closely tied to the geographical specialization of the provinces. The Andean region was characterized by extreme altitudinal variation over short horizontal distances, and the Inca state exploited this variation by assigning each province a particular role in the imperial economy. The agricultural provinces of the coast produced maize, cotton, and peppers; the highland provinces produced potatoes, quinoa, and tubers; the pastoral provinces of the altiplano produced llamas and alpacas; the mining provinces produced gold, silver, and copper; the forest provinces produced coca, ají peppers, and tropical products. The system of vertical archipelago, in which populations at different altitudes had access to resources at multiple elevations, was elaborated by the Inca state on an imperial scale.

Historical Significance

The system of tribute and redistribution was the foundation of the Inca economy, and it allowed the imperial state to mobilize the resources of a vast and diverse territory. The system was not, however, a simple exploitation of the population: the imperial state provided for the population in times of need, supported the army and the bureaucracy, and maintained a network of roads, granaries, and storehouses that served the entire population. The Spanish, who encountered the system in the 1530s, were impressed by its scale and efficiency, and they preserved many of its features in the early colonial administration. The tasa of Toledo (1570s) drew heavily on the Inca tribute and mit’a systems, and the colonial mita of the silver mines of Potosí, although imposed by the Spanish crown and adapted to new ends, took its name and several of its organizational features from the Inca precedent.