Encyclopedia of the Incas

resources, and possessing coveted material goods. Because individual or familial
ownership contrasted with the more typical group sharing of productive
resources, the wealthy were distinguished as much by the privilege of their
socioeconomic stature as by the quantity of their wealth.
Wealth can be analyzed in two contexts in Tahuantinsuyu, the Inca Empire: in
state economic policy and among the aristocracy. Because the Inca economy
relied upon labor service, rather than specie, for its tax base, much of what the
state mobilized was heavy staples, such as food. The Inca transport system also
lacked waterborne and wheeled transport, so that much state production had to
be replicated regionally. The state’s conferral of high-status goods, especially
finely woven cloth (qompi) (see Costume; Weaving and Textiles); gold, silver,
and ceramic tumblers (see Keros; Metallurgy); fine ceramic brewing and
service vessels (see Ceramics); and stools provided rank and privilege to the
honored individuals. Those items, while not convertible, were accompanied by
perquisites, such as labor service and estate lands, which did constitute a main
form of wealth in the realm (see Estates, Royal). By manufacturing and
distributing such items, the Incas found an efficient way to reduce the costs of
compliance among the ethnic lords and their subjects.
Much of the socioeconomic life and politics of Andean society was mediated
through ritualized exchanges of labor. At the local level, a lord (curaca) could
command a portion of the labor of his followers, so that a lord with many
subjects could be considered wealthy (see Sapa Inca). The Incas used that
principle to legitimize their extraction of labor service as tax. Andean politics
took place in a context of commensal hospitality, in which lords’ generosity
marked their stature (see Feasts, State-Sponsored). The products of the
available labor force, especially fine cloth and maize beer, chicha, were
dispensed to lubricate decision making and underwrite power relations. The
Incas applied this notion to their own goals, using the production of their
taxpayers to host annual feasts at provincial centers, where several days of
feasting were followed by announcements of the following years’ labor
obligations (see Labor Service).
While the empire’s resources were institutional wealth, it also makes sense to
speak of the wealth of the aristocracy. State resources were used for
governmental interests, such as military activity and maintaining social order. In
contrast, the elite’s resources were used to maintain a privileged lifestyle and to
compete for status in the volatile atmosphere of Inca politics. Certain productive
resources were especially desirable, because of the products that they yielded