Encyclopedia of the Incas

and disposition of goods stored in state warehouses located around the empire
(see Storage). To understand how the administration functioned, it is important
to note the peculiar nature of tribute in the Inca Empire, which demanded labor,
rather than goods, from subject peoples. Sources differ as to whether this labor
demand was required only of men, or if women were included as well.
Tributaries were able-bodied men (and some sources say women) between the
ages of 18 and 50.
In the state labor draft, known as mit’a, subjects were required to work a
certain number of days each month on state projects, including the construction
and maintenance of state facilities such as buildings, roads, bridges,
storehouses, and so on. This system of labor, known as corvée, was organized, at
least ideally, in a decimal manner. At the local level, groups of 10 workers
(chunca) worked together under the leadership of one of their members (the
curaca). Five groups of 10 workers formed a larger group of 50 workers; two
groups of 50 formed a group of 100 (pachaca) workers, and on up—combining
the organizational principles of 5 × 2—to larger groups of 1,000 (huaranga),
10,000 (hunu), and 40,000, a grouping that did not have a name but that was the
largest unit of administration and labor organization in the empire. What is
termed the Inca system of “decimal administration” was the entire apparatus of
producing and maintaining census counts, assessing tribute levels for population
centers, and the monitoring by state officials of compliance with the demands of
the labor tribute.