labor-yielding services may have been assessed by proportions of units of 1,000
households, while labor that yielded ecologically targeted products was taxed by
proportions of 100 households. A strict proportionality may have been applied in
the kinds of products to which people were dedicated, as the Chupachu textile
producers were 10 times the number of pottery-makers and other less prestigious
manufactures.
Labor obligations were discharged at places of the state’s choosing. Craft
production could take place at provincial centers, such as Huánuco Pampa,
where the state maintained housing for upward of 10,000 temporary personnel.
In such cases, people could be required to travel for days and stay for months,
discharging their duties while living off state supplies. In many places, the Incas
established farms, mines, or artisan communities at locations with suitable
productive resources. Colonists or temporary workers were brought in to staff
the production centers (see below). In all cases, the Incas supplied the raw
materials and the people provided their expertise and labor. Thus, women used
state fiber to produce one shirt a year while working at home. The products were
typically stored in warehouse facilities erected near state centers and support
stations, for use against future need.
Both general chronicles and Spanish provincial inspections reported that the
Incas resettled as much as a third of the Andean populace as internal colonists
(mitmacuna). That figure, if correct, means that the Incas relocated upward of
four to five million people, for economic, political, military, and ideological
purposes. They were committed to agropastoral production, artisanry, and
staffing both frontier forts and internal garrisons. The largest farms included
those established at Abancay and the Mantaro valley (Peru), Cochabamba
(Bolivia), and Coctaca-Rodero (Argentina). At Cochabamba, 14,000 permanent
and temporary workers grew maize for the army, while at Abancay, farmers
cultivated cotton, hot peppers, and other warm weather crops. Skilled weavers
and potters staffed facilities at Milliraya, on the northeast side of Lake Titicaca.
Falcón (1567) list Chupachu Labor Service in 1549
Highland Service Categories Assignment Taxpayers
human sacrifice administrators
guardians of the Sun?
servants of dead Incas
gold specialists
silver specialistsgold miners: 120 men, 120 women 120
silver miners: 60 men, 60 women 60
construction (Cuzco area) 400
agriculture (Cuzco area) 400
retainers of Huayna Capac (Cuzco) 150