3. The Economic Basis of the Empire

3 The Economic Basis of the Empire: The Principle of Population There are very few countries in which one does not observe a constant pressure of the population toward an increase beyond the means of subsistence. -Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population Rarely does a country offer a more beautiful illustration of Malthus' law than the empire of the Incas. The increase of popu lation in relation to the means of subsistence was one of the domi nant factors in the imperial policy; and the conquests, the tech nical progress, the social organization all expressed the continu ous effort of the Quechuas to extend and intensify the cultivation of the soil. To be sure, vital statistics are lacking, not because they are nonexistent-on the contrary, the gathering of statistics had at tained a rare degree of perfection, as we shall see-but because we no longer know how to read the quipus by which they were re corded. Nevertheless, the increase in population before the Span ish conquest is evident not only from the statements of the chron iclers, but from a study of the facts. Ondegardo declares that the number of native inhabitants had increased "in a marvelous man23 24 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru ner" under the rule of the Incas and that there were few mountain areas where the inhabitants could sustain life without seeking elsewhere for the satisfaction of their needs. Sarmiento remarks that in Pachacutec's time there was a shortage of arable land around Cuzco and that the Inca was obliged to "transport to a distance" the people who were settled within a radius of two leagues around the city so that he could give their lands to the residents of the city itself. The earlier expansion of the Chimn empire had been due, if we are to believe Balboa, to the lack of arable land; and agriculture had already reached a highly inten sive degree of development on the coast for the same reason, for nothing appears to support Cunow's statement that the Chimns were better farmers than the Incas. 1 At the time of the conquest the population of the Inca empire was probably between eleven and twelve million. 2 This figure de creased under the Spanish occupation because of the degeneration of the native stock (work in the mines, alcoholism, etc.), civil wars, and especially epidemics of measles and smallpox. 3 In 1580, ac cording to a census taken under Philip II, the population was eight million. 4 Later there was an increase, but it was slow and was due to the influx of foreigners of the white race. 5 We do have statistics for our own day, but they are far from accurate. We shall return to this point later. Here we shall note merely that in 1914, on the eve of the 'war, the total population of all races within the limits of the ancient Peruvian empire was scarcely larger than that which lived under the rule of Huayna Capac. 6 That ancient Peru had a considerable population is attested by the existence of large cities; but one must be on one's guard against reckoning the number of inhabitants by the extent of the ruins, for very often the towns and citadels sheltered ploughed fields within their walls.

There should be nothing surprising in this predominance of the demographic factor. In assuring peace and security within his frontiers and decreeing a stern code of moral behavior, the Inca promoted the growth of the population. Infanticide and adultery were severely punished, prostitution was almost completely sup pressed, and marriage was made obligatory. Every year, or every The Economic Basis: The Principle of Population 25 two or three years, at a fixed date, the young women from eighteen to twenty and the young men from twenty-four to twenty-six were solemnly assembled. The Inca's delegate would then distribute the girls from the "Houses of the Virgins of the Sun" (of which we shall speak later) as gifts from the sovereign. The young men and the young women would be lined up in rows facing each other and would be told, "You take this one; you take that one." 7 Yet the number of marriages arranged in this way was actually very small.

Most people were married, not by royal authority, but in accord .. ance with local custom. H ere we encounter that duality upon which we shall later shed a fuller light) and without which it is impossible to explain the Inca system: the coexistence of rational planning and local custom. In marriage, as in other matters, the custom varied with the region; but, in general, the Indian who wanted to marry a girl would buy her by making presents to her father and the local chief-the curaca-and the representative of the monarch would have nothing more to do than to register the agreement of the parties. 8 Thus, marriage by gift was superimposed upon marriage by purchase without prejudice to either the one or the other; a man who already had a wife could nevertheless obtain another as a reward for his services. In brief, the Indian was obliged to marry, but he could receive additional wives at the hand of his sovereign.

The Spanish writers, describing only one or the other of these two forms of marriage and generalizing from it, could, according to their bent, represent the Inca as a tyrant officially assigning husbands and wives to each other, or as a good paterfamilias who confined himself to approving his subjects' choice. 9 It is certain that throughout the greater part of the plateau parental authority was and continued to be very great, and we can well believe that parents sometimes betrothed children without their knowledge. 10 A marriage performed without the consent of the parents was considered invalid unless later ratified by them. ll As for the gift that is to say, the wife's purchase price-its value corresponded to the rank of the parties concerned and ranged from a simple earth enware vessel to livestock and objects of gold and silver.l 2 It seems beyond dispute that the confirmed bachelor-that is, 26 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru the young man who had not made up his mind to take a wife by the age of twenty-five or twenty-six-was married by authority.

In any case, the choice of a spouse remained extremely circum scribed, since it could be exercised only within certain limits of age, social class, and territory. Any union outside the community was prohibited. 13 Marriage was indissoluble except in the case of adultery on the part of the wife, which, in certain provinces, could lead to her being repudiated, subject to the authorization of the Inca if the woman concerned was the wife of a curacaJ or of the curaca if she was the wife of an ordinary Indian. Generally speaking, however, adultery, whether on the part of man or woman, was prohibited on pain of death. 14 Polygamy is met with only among the high officials or local chiefs in command of more than a thousand families, and especially in the household of the Inca sovereign himself. 15 Among the former, the practice of polygamy gave official sanction to a custom com monly accepted by most of the South American tribes, whether or not they were subject to the Peruvians. It was a custom that granted every man the right to have as many wives as he could support. In practice, this meant, in most cases, only one. 16 This custom existed among the Caras,17 the Puruhas,18 the Caiiaris,19 and the Chib chas.20 Even today polygamy is practiced among the Jivaros of the virgin forests on the eastern slope of the Cordillera in Ecuador. 21 For the Inca monarch, polygamy was a political necessity. His family, which to a considerable extent constituted the ruling class, had to be large enough to assure a sufficient recruitment of military leaders and civil administrators. While the local chiefs could have as many as five or six wives, the Inca could have an unlimited number. 22 These polygamous practices are often cited as a cause of the in crease in population. 23 The custom had, of necessity, a reverse side, for it was bound to make 'women a rarer commodity in the marriage market, even allowing for the loss of men involved in the sovereigns' wars.24 Such a conception of marriage seems surprising to us today; yet the Spaniards themselves adopted the principle of obligatory The Economic Basis: The Principle of Population 27 unions shortly after the conquest in an effort to put an end to the immorality prevalent among the white men. In 1551 a royal decree ordered the encomenderos (whose functions we shall describe later, and whose number included all the conquistadors or their descendants) to marry 'within three years under pain of losing the encomienda that constituted their means of livelihood.25 Even in modern times, chiefs of state, in exceptional circumstances, have had recourse to analogous measures: the first French colonists who settled in Canada in the seventeenth century were obliged, under threat of severe penalties, to take wives from among the young women sent out by the government. 26 It may be added that compulsory marriage is entirely logical in a socialist system. Socialism, defined as the absorption of the individual by the state or the local community, must inevitably lead to official mating, as communism must inevitably lead to the communal sharing of women.27 The socialist state, organizing everything in accordance with rational principles laid down in abstracto and applied by way of authority, must not allow the responsibility of assuring the future of the race to be left to the inclinations of individual fancy. The laws of Lycurgus deprived the unmarried man of his rights of citizenship; Plato pressed this idea to its farthest extreme when he envisaged yearly unions only among couples so matched as to assure the improvement of the race; and Campanella, in his famous Civitas solis) did not confine himself merely to setting the dates when nuptials were to be officially solemnized, but required that conjugal relations should take place on days fixed by authority in accordance with the counsels of astrologers and physicians. The Incas, for all their detailed regimentation, did not establish such a "human stud farm," but limited themselves to sanc

tioning existing custom to the greatest possible extent. As their arable lands were limited, they did not deem it essential that the population should increase. 28 But neither did they wish to see it diminish, for it was one of the sources of their empire's power.29 Another cause of the increase in the population was undoubt edly the system of labor, which we shall have to study. The Indian had his family assist him in the accomplishment of the task that was assigned to him by law. He tended, in consequence, to con sider children as "capital," all the more to be sought after as other 28 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru forms of capital were rare. Thus, it was altogether logical that marriages should be accounted as "rich" if they were fruitful, and "poor" if the wives remained childless. so The character of the In dian family is naturally utilitarian, and this has continued to be true to our own day, as we shall see-a wretched family, in 'which the wife and children are valued primarily in terms of the services they provide. 31 Thus far we have seen no more than a part of the agonizing problem with which the Inca sovereigns were faced: The popula tion was increasing. What were its means of subsistence? From the description we have given of the Peruvian plateau it can well be imagined that they were far from sufficient. For the most part, arable lands were few and poor; the valleys themselves, like that of Cuzco, were incapable of feeding groups even moderately pro lific. Thus, the population was unevenly distributed. It was so dense in the fertile regions that Squier compared Peru to China. 32 To save soil, the Indians used to go so far as to construct their villages on barren land only. Thus, Cuzco and Ollantay were built on rocky slopes, and the coastal towns of Pachacamac and Chincha were situated outside the territory that the rivers could render fertile. ss The staple food of the Peruvians was maize. This plant is re markably well suited to poor soil and primitive processes of cul tivation. Because of the way it grows, the number of stalks it can put forth in a given space is severely limited, and this makes it easier to cultivate. It is not necessary for the entire surface of the field to be conscientiously ploughed; it is enough to dig holes in the ground at the proper intervals and to bury the seeds in them.

No cereal produces such a crop as this, and its stalks provide a fodder that is superior to wheat straw. It is of better quality in the cold regions, where it has a long period of nurture, than in the warm valleys of the coast. Maize is the sacred grain of the New World. In the words of the graceful American poem, it is indeed the gift of "the friend of man." S4 G6mara maintains that the grain-producing areas are fertile in Peru, but this is the case only in a small number of privileged T he Economic Basis: The Principle of Population 29 areas. Ondegardo tells us that the harvests were poor three years out of five and that in certain villages, notably in the Collao, the Indians reaped only a fifth of what they needed to support life. He adds that in a good many districts there were harvests only every six or seven years.35 Next to maize, it was vegetablesthat played the most important part in the diet of the Peruvians. The potato, which was unknown to us, and 'which is still to be found growing wild in the mountains of Ancachs and the valley of the Rio de Santa;36 the oca) another edible tuber (oxalis tuberosa); the apichu or sweet potato, yellow white, red, or violet-colored; the pumpkin, the bean, the cassava tree, the tomato, the pimento, the quinoa (chenopodium), which the Spaniards called "little rice" because of the shape of its berries-all these grow in poor soil up to an altitude of more than 13,000 feet. A number of other plants also provided food for the population. "All are good for the Indian to have," remarks Garci laso.37 In the warm valleys and the fertile regions of the coast, the basic foodstuffs were the yucca and, in Ecuador, the flavorsome fruits that are the delicacies enjoyed by today's travelers. 38 Salt 'was plentiful in Peru and was found near both Tumbez and CUZCO. 39 The honey hidden in the hollows of the sierra's trees was famous among the Indians, but they did not know the art of keep ing bees.40 Wild animals-the guanaco, the vicuna, the stag, the partridge, the wild duck, and other game-were abundant on the plateau, but this was due solely to the measures taken by the Incas for their protection. As we shall see later, hunting 'was strictly regulated.

There were few domestic animals. The Indians had a sort of rluck,41 a great many guinea pigs-the only animals on the coast -and dogs. A few tribes of northern Peru enjoyed the flesh of these last, but in the central provinces dogs were considered more of a liability than an asset because they had to be fed; this is the reason why only a small number of them were to be found in pre Columbian America, although they multiplied rapidly after the Spanish conquest. 42 The house cat 'was unknown. Lastly, the inhab itants of the plateau used to eat certain rodents (the abrocome, the 30 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru viscacha, and the agouti) and certain marsupials (the opossum), the bones of which have been found in the tombs of Machu Picchu. 43 All these animals, however, were of very slight importance as compared with the A uchenia J of which two species, the guanaco and vicuna, remained wild, and two, the llama and the paco or alpaca, were domesticated. Not only were these two species used as beasts of burden, but their wool served as raw material for the manufacture of textiles, their flesh as meat, and their dung as fuel.

Along with maize} the llama formed the basis of the whole econ omy of the plateau. The Spanish conquerors, at a loss for a name to denote this animal, with which they were unacquainted, would sometimes call it the big sheep and sometimes the small camel. The latter appel lation is rather felicitous, for the grass of the puna (ychu) is all the food the llama needs to satisfy it, and it can go entirely without food and water for several days. It does not need to be shod, for it has cloven hoofs, nor to be saddled, for its thick fleece is sufficient protection; it has no fear of the cold, and it likes high altitudes. It is rarely encountered north of the equator, where there is a dearth of ychu. 44 As a pack animal, the llama is decidedly mediocre. It can scarcely carry more than a hundred and ten pounds for a dis tance of twelve and a half miles a day. A man's weight is too heavy for it; one cannot "ride a llama." The Indians always take care to have the loaded animals followed by a certain number of beasts without any packs, to serve as replacements for their weary com rades. When one of these animals is mistreated, it defends itself by spitting in its enemy's face; when it is tired, it lies down, and no one on earth can induce it to take to the road again. It is not very intelligent, for a rope stretched in front of it below the neck is enough to keep it from moving forward; it does not have the sense to take a slight movement backward and lower its head so as to pass under this obstacle. This makes it easy to pen up whole flocks of them. It eats only during the day and chews its cud at night.

The alpaca, or paco, the wool of which is longer and silkier than that of the llama, is even less suited for use as a beast of burden. 45 The Economic Basis: The Principle of Population 31 At the time of the Incas, the members of the ruling class pos sessed great flocks of llamas, frequently numbering more than five hundred head. Among the common people, every head of a family owned a pair of llamas. He had the right to kill and eat the young offspring, and, in addition, to receive some sides of meat at the time of the royal hunts; but (with certain exceptions that we shall consider later in discussing livestock allotments) this amounted to a rather meager total. The Indians did not use the milk of the llama; it was reserved for the animal's young. No one knows whether the llama really prevented cannibalism, as some maintain,46 but this beast was certainly a blessing to the poor Indian of the plateau. It constituted an article of exchange of the first rank and made it possible for the inhabitants of the very cold regions to procure by this means the maize they needed. And the Indian showed his affection for the llama in a thousand touch ing ways. Sometimes even today, when a young llama has grown big and strong enough to begin work, a festival is given in his honor, he is decked out for the occasion, and the people dance around him and shower him with "a thousand caresses." 47 It is not without reason that the chroniclers saw in the llama a mani festation of divine goodness. "God has provided the Indians," says Acosta, "with an animal that serves them at once as a ewe and as a mare, and He wished this animal to cost them nothing, for He knew that they were poor." 48 Some ill-disposed Spaniards, on the other hand, did not fail to ridicule the Indian's affection for the beast. "The regard of the Indians for the llama," wrote Ulloa, "passes the bounds of reason and clearly reveals their ignorance." 49 The llama is not only a useful animal; it is graceful as well. Cieza de Leon used to take pleasure in seeing the people of the villages of Collao bringing their beasts home in the evening loaded with wood. 50 A drove of these creatures is indeed a charming spectacle, as they move with slow and steady steps, always dignified and un concerned, with their delicate heads and mobile ears, along the paths of the Cordilleras. No doubt the llama of today carries much merchandise unknown to the Incas, but the animal itself has not changed since preColumbian days any more than the man who drives him or the profile of the mountains and the horizon of the 32 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru plateau. He is indeed the Indian's fitting companion: gentle, placid, grave, and a little sad, like him.

In brief, the Peruvian's means of subsistence were and con tinued to be very limited. On the coast, fish naturally occupied a large place in his diet, but it was very rare on the plateau, for no fish could live in those torrential streams. 51 The diet of the Peruvian Indians was thus primarily vegetar ian.,52 At the end of the eighteenth century Del Hoyo remarked that the Indians ate very little meat;53 and the same is true today in a number of regions.,54For a long time after the arrival of the Spaniards the natives of Peru and especially those of Chile made use of only the hide and the tallow of the cattle imported from Europe and did not consume the flesh..55 Garcilaso, who tried to enumerate all the things the Peruvians lacked, was obliged to draw up a list of impressive length. 56 Never, in fact, did any great civilization of antiquity have at its disposal such limited resources. Desolate stretches of grass, rocks, or sand; a dearth of water on the coast; insufficient warmth on the plateau; a scarcity of animals-all made for a perpetual struggle for survival and growth. In the myths and legends, the conquerors are "seekers after fertile lands," to quote the phrase of L. E. Valcarcel. The Indian is a man continually on the defensive in the struggle for existence.

Only external conquest and an internal organization that left no place for waste could enable a people to live under these condi tions. No doubt it would be a great mistake to believe, with the Marxists, that economic factors explain everything; for the troubled times that followed the disappearance of the civilization of Tiahuanaco could have continue?, the excess population could have been wiped out by civil wars or in the wake of a series of famines, and the Spaniards would have found the country in the state in which they found the coasts of Darien and New Granada. But from the moment when an intelligent and ambitious leader stood forth and asserted himself, he was obliged to begin the strug gle against Nature. The pressure of population on the means of subsistence was one of the determining factors in Peruvian policy, and we feel its influence acting throughout all phases of the drama in which the Incas played their historic role. 57 4 The Social Basis of the Empire: The Rulers and the Ruled What are these old and dried-up truths upon which we are feeding?