The History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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A more thorough and effectual agrarian law than this cannot be
imagined. In other countries where such a law has been
introduced, its operation, after a time, has given way to the
natural order of events, and, under the superior intelligence and
thrift of some and the prodigality of others, the usual
vicissitudes of fortune have been allowed to take their course,
and restore things to their natural inequality. Even the iron
law of Lycurgus ceased to operate after a time, and melted away
before the spirit of luxury and avarice. The nearest approach to
the Peruvian constitution was probably in Judea, where, on the
recurrence of the great national jubilee, at the close of every
half-century, estates reverted to their original proprietors.
There was this important difference in Peru; that not only did
the lease, if we may so call it, terminate with the year, but
during that period the tenant had no power to alienate or to add
to his possessions. The end of the brief term found him in
precisely the same condition that he was in at the beginning.
Such a state of things might be supposed to be fatal to any thing
like attachment to the soil, or to that desire of improving it,
which is natural to the permanent proprietor, and hardly less so
to the holder of a long lease. But the practical operation of
the law seems to have been otherwise; and it is probable, that,
under the influence of that love of order and aversion to change
which marked the Peruvian institutions, each new partition of the
soil usually confirmed the occupant in his possession, and the
tenant for a year was converted into a proprietor for life.

The territory was cultivated wholly by the people. The lands
belonging to the Sun were first attended to. They next tilled
the lands of the old, of the sick, of the window and the orphan,
and of soldiers engaged in actual service; in short, of all that
part of the community who, from bodily infirmity or any other
cause, were unable to attend to their own concerns. The people
were then allowed to work on their own ground, each man for
himself, but with the general obligation to assist his neighbour,
when any circumstance - the burden of a young and numerous
family, for example - might demand it. *16 Lastly, they
cultivated the lands of the Inca. This was done, with great
ceremony, by the whole population in a body. At break of day,
they were summoned together by proclamation from some
neighbouring tower or eminence, and all the inhabitants of the
district, men, women, and children, appeared dressed in their
gayest apparel, bedecked with their little store of finery and
ornaments, as if for some great jubilee. They went through the
labors of the day with the same joyous spirit, chanting their
popular ballads which commemorated the heroic deeds of the Incas,
regulating their movements by the measure of the chant, and all
mingling in the chorus, of which the word hailli, or "triumph,"
was usually the burden. These national airs had something soft
and pleasing in their character, that recommended them to the
Spaniards; and many a Peruvian song was set to music by them
after the Conquest, and was listened to by the unfortunate
natives with melancholy satisfaction, as it called up
recollections of the past, when their days glided peacefully away
under the sceptre of the Incas. *17

[Footnote 16: Garcilasso relates that an Indian was hanged by
Huayna Capac for tilling a curaca's ground, his near relation,
before that of the poor. The gallows was erected on the curaca's
own land. Ibid., Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 2.]

[Footnote 17: Ibid., Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 1-3. - Ondegardo, Rel.
Seg., Ms.]

A similar arrangement prevailed with respect to the different
manufactures as to the agricultural products of the country. The
flocks of llamas, or Peruvian sheep, were appropriated
exclusively to the Sun and to the Inca. *18 Their number was
immense. They were scattered over the different provinces,
chiefly in the colder regions of the country, where they were
intrusted to the care of experienced shepherds, who conducted
them to different pastures according to the change of season. A
large number was every year sent to the capital for the
consumption of the Court, and for the religious festivals and
sacrifices. But these were only the males, as no female was
allowed to be killed. The regulations for the care and breeding
of these flocks were prescribed with the greatest minuteness, and
with a sagacity which excited the admiration of the Spaniards,
who were familiar with the management of the great migratory
flocks of merinos in their own country. *19

[Footnote 18: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms.

Yet sometimes the sovereign would recompense some great chief, or
even some one among the people, who had rendered him a service,
by the grant of a small number of llamas, - never many. These
were not to be disposed of or killed by their owners, but
descended as common property to their heirs. This strange
arrangement proved a fruitful source of litigation after the
Conquest. Ibid., ubi supra.]

[Footnote 19: See especially the account of the Licentiate
Ondegardo, who goes into more detail than any contemporary
writer, concerning the management of the Peruvian flocks. Rel.
Seg., Ms.]

At the appointed season, they were all sheared, and the wool was
deposited in the public magazines. It was then dealt out to each
family in such quantities as sufficed for its wants, and was
consigned to the female part of the household, who were well
instructed in the business of spinning and weaving When this
labor was accomplished, and the family was provided with a coarse
but warm covering, suited to the cold climate of the mountains, -
for, in the lower country, cotton, furnished in like manner by
the Crown, took the place, to a certain extent, of wool, - the
people were required to labor for the Inca. The quantity of the
cloth needed, as well as the peculiar kind and quality of the
fabric, was first determined at Cuzco. The work was then
apportioned among the different provinces. Officers, appointed
for the purpose, superintended the distribution of the wool, so
that the manufacture of the different articles should be
intrusted to the most competent hands. *20 They did not leave the
matter here but entered the dwellings, from time to time, and saw
that the work was faithfully executed. This domestic inquisition
was not confined to the labors for the Inca. It included, also,
those for the several families; and care was taken that each
household should employ the materials furnished for its own use
in the manner that was intended, so that no one should be
unprovided with necessary apparel. *21 In this domestic labor all
the female part of the establishment was expected to join.
Occupation was found for all, from the child five years old to
the aged matron not too infirm to hold a distaff. No one, at
least none but the decrepit and the sick, was allowed to eat the
bread of idleness in Peru. Idleness was a crime in the eye of
the law, and, as such, severely punished; while industry was
publicly commended and stimulated by rewards. *22

[Footnote 20: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim. et Seg., Mss.

The manufacture of cloths for the Inca included those for the
numerous persons of the blood royal, who wore garments of a finer
texture than was permitted to any other Peruvian. Garcilasso,
Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 6.]

[Footnote 21: Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., Ms - Acosta, lib. 6, cap.
15.]

[Footnote 22: Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., Ms - Garcilasso, Com. Real.,
Parte 1 lib. 5, cap. 11.]

The like course was pursued with reference to the other
requisitions of the government. All the mines in the kingdom
belonged to the Inca. They were wrought exclusively for his
benefit, by persons familiar with this service, and selected from
the districts where the mines were situated. *23 Every Peruvian
of the lower class was a husbandman, and, with the exception of
those already specified, was expected to provide for his own
support by the cultivation of his land. A small portion of the
community, however, was instructed in mechanical arts; some of
them of the more elegant kind, subservient to the purposes of
luxury and ornament. The demand for these was chiefly limited to
the sovereign and his Court; but the labor of a larger number of
hands was exacted for the execution of the great public works
which covered the land. The nature and amount of the services
required were all determined at Cuzco by commissioners well
instructed in the resources of the country, and in the character
of the inhabitants of different provinces. *24

[Footnote 23: Garcilasso would have us believe that the Inca was
indebted to the curacas for his gold and silver, which were
furnished by the great vassals as presents. (Com. Real., Parte
1, lib. 5, cap. 7.) This improbable statement is contradicted by
the Report of the Royal Audience, Ms., by Sarmiento, (Relacion,
Ms., cap. 15,) and by Ondegardo, (Rel. Prim., Ms.) who all speak
of the mines as the property of the government, and wrought
exclusively for its benefit. From this reservoir the proceeds
were liberally dispensed in the form of presents among the great
lords, and still more for the embellishment of the temples.]

[Footnote 24: Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 13 -
16. - Ondegardo, Rel. Prim. et Seg., Mss.]

This information was obtained by an admirable regulation, which
has scarcely a counterpart in the annals of a semi-civilized
people. A register was kept of all the births and deaths
throughout the country, and exact returns of the actual
population were made to government every year, by means of the
quipus, a curious invention, which will be explained hereafter.
*25 At certain intervals, also, a general survey of the country
was made, exhibiting a complete view of the character of the
soil, its fertility, the nature of its products, both
agricultural and mineral, - in short, of all that constituted the
physical resources of the empire. *26 Furnished with these
statistical details, it was easy for the government, after
determining the amount of requisitions, to distribute the work
among the respective provinces best qualified to execute it. The
task of apportioning the labor was assigned to the local
authorities, and great care was taken that it should be done in
such a manner, that, while the most competent hands were
selected, it should not fall disproportionately heavy on any. *27

[Footnote 25: Montesinos, Mem. Antiguas, Ms., lib. 2, cap. 6. -
Pedro Pizarro, Relacion del Descubrimiento y Conquista de los
Reynos del Peru, Ms.

"Cada provincia, en fin del ano, mandava asentar en los quipos,
por la cuenta de sus nudos, todos los hombres que habian muerto
en ella en aquel ano, y por el consiguiente los que habian
nacido, y por principio del ano que entraba, venian con los
quipos al Cuzco." Sarmiento, Relacion Ms., cap. 16.]

[Footnote 26: Garcilasso, Com. Real. Parte 1, lib. 2, cap. 14.]

[Footnote 27: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms. - Sarmiento, Rel., Ms.,
cap. 15.

"Presupuesta y entendida la dicha division que el Inga tenia
hecha de su gente, y orden que tenia puesta en el govierno de
ella, era muy facil haverla en la division y cobranza de los
dichos tributos; porque era claro y cierto lo que a cada uno
cabia sin que hubiese desigualdad ni engano." Dec. de la Aud.
Real., Ms.]

The different provinces of the country furnished persons
peculiarly suited to different employments, which, as we shall
see hereafter, usually descended from father to son. Thus, one
district supplied those most skilled in working the mines,
another the most curious workers in metals, or in wood, and so
on. *28 The artisan was provided by government with the
materials; and no one was required to give more than a stipulated
portion of his time to the public service. He was then succeeded
by another for the like term; and it should be observed, that all
who were engaged in the employment of the government - and the
remark applies equally to agricultural labor - were maintained,
for the time, at the public expense. *29 By this constant
rotation of labor, it was intended that no one should be
overburdened, and that each man should have time to provide for
the demands of his own household. It was impossible - in the
judgment of a high Spanish authority - to improve on the system
of distribution, so carefully was it accommodated to the
condition and comfort of the artisan. *30 The security of the
working classes seems to have been ever kept in view in the
regulations of the government; and these were so discreetly
arranged, that the most wearing and unwholesome labors, as those
of the mines, occasioned no detriment to the health of the
laborer; a striking contrast to his subsequent condition under
the Spanish rule. *31

[Footnote 28: Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 15. - Ondegardo,
Rel. Seg., Ms.]

[Footnote 29: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms. - Garcilasso, Com.
Real., Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 5.]

[Footnote 30: "Y tambien se tenia cuenta que el trabajo que
pasavan fuese moderado, y con el menos riesgo que fuese posible.
. . . . . . Era tanta la orden que tuvieron estos Indios, que a
mi parecer aunque mucho se piense en ello Seria dificultoso
mejorarla conocida su condicion y costumbres." Ondegardo, Rel.
Prim., Ms.]

[Footnote 31: "The working of the mines," says the President of
the Council of the Indies, "was so regulated that no one felt it
a hardship, much less was his life shortened by it." (Sarmiento,
Relacion, Ms., cap. 15) It is a frank admission for a Spaniard.]

A part of the agricultural produce and manufactures was
transported to Cuzco, to minister to the immediate demands of the
Inca and his Court. But far the greater part was stored in
magazines scattered over the different provinces. These spacious
buildings, constructed of stone, were divided between the Sun and
the Inca, though the greater share seems to have been
appropriated by the monarch. By a wise regulation, any
deficiency in the contributions of the Inca might be supplied
from the granaries of the Sun. *32 But such a necessity could
rarely have happened; and the providence of the government
usually left a large surplus in the royal depositories, which was
removed to a third class of magazines, whose design was to supply
the people in seasons of scarcity, and, occasionally, to furnish
relief to individuals, whom sickness or misfortune had reduced to
poverty; thus, in a manner, justifying the assertion of a
Castilian document, that a large portion of the revenues of the
Inca found its way back again, through one channel or another,
into the hands of the people. *33 These magazines were found by
the Spaniards, on their arrival, stored with all the various
products and manufactures of the country, - with maize, coca,
quinua, woollen and cotton stuffs of the finest quality, with
vases and utensils of gold, silver, and copper, in short, with
every article of luxury or use within the compass of Peruvian
skill. *34 The magazines of grain, in particular, would
frequently have sufficed for the consumption of the adjoining
district for several years. *35 An inventory of the various
products of the country, and the quarters whence they were
obtained, was every year taken by the royal officers, and
recorded by the quipucamayus on their registers, with surprising
regularity and precision. These registers were transmitted to the
capital, and submitted to the Inca, who could thus at a glance,
as it were, embrace the whole results of the national industry,
and see how far they corresponded with the requisitions of
government. *36

[Footnote 32: Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 34. -
Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms.

"E asi esta parte del Inga no hay duda sino que de todas tres era
la mayor, y en los depositos se parece bien que yo visite muchos
en diferentes partes, e son mayores e mas largos que no los de su
religion sin comparasion." Idem, Rel. Seg., Ms.]

[Footnote 33: "Todos los dichos tributos y servicios que el Inga
imponia y llevaba como dicho es eran con color y para efecto del
govierno y pro comun de todos asi como lo que se ponia en
depositos todo se combertia y distribuia entre los mismos
naturales." Dec. de la Aud. Real., Ms.]

[Footnote 34: Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 15.

"No podre decir," says one of the Conquerors, "los depositos.
Vide de rropas y de todos generos de rropas y vestidos que en
este reino se hacian y vsavan que faltava tiempo para vello y
entendimiento para comprender tanta cosa, muchos depositos de
barretas de cobre para las minas y de costales y sogas de vasos
de palo y platos del oro y plata que aqui se hallo hera cosa
despanto." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.]

[Footnote 35: For ten years, sometimes, if we may credit
Ondegardo, who had every means of knowing. "E ansi cuando no era
menester se estaba en los depositos e habia algunas vezes comida
de diez anos. . . . . . Los cuales todos se hallaron Ilenos
cuando Ilegaron los Espanoles desto y de todas las cosas
necesarias para la vida humana" Rel. Seg., Ms.]

[Footnote 36: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms.

"Por tanta orden e cuenta que seria dificultoso creerlo ni darlo
a entender como ellos lo tienen en su cuenta e por registros e
por menudo lo manifestaron que se pudiera por estenso." Idem,
Rel. Seg., Ms.]
Such are some of the most remarkable features of the Peruvian
institutions relating to property, as delineated by writers who,
however contradictory in the details, have a general conformity
of outline. These institutions are certainly so remarkable, that
it is hardly credible they should ever have been enforced
throughout a great empire, and for a long period of years. Yet
we have the most unequivocal testimony to the fact from the
Spaniards, who landed in Peru in time to witness their operation;
some of whom, men of high judicial station and character, were
commissioned by the government to make investigations into the
state of the country under its ancient rulers.

The impositions on the Peruvian people seem to have been
sufficiently heavy. On them rested the whole burden of
maintaining, not only their own order, but every other order in
the state. The members of the royal house, the great nobles,
even the public functionaries, and the numerous body of the
priesthood, were all exempt from taxation. *37 The whole duty of
defraying the expenses of the government belonged to the people.
Yet this was not materially different from the condition of
things formerly existing in most parts of Europe, where the
various privileged classes claimed exemption - not always with
success, indeed - from bearing part of the public burdens. The
great hardship in the case of the Peruvian was, that he could not
better his condition. His labors were for others, rather than
for himself. However industrious, he could not add a rood to his
own possessions, nor advance himself one hair's breadth in the
social scale. The great and universal motive to honest industry,
that of bettering one's lot, was lost upon him. The great law of
human progress was not for him. As he was born, so he was to
die. Even his time he could not properly call his own. Without
money, with little property of any kind, he paid his taxes in
labor. *38 No wonder that the government should have dealt with
sloth as a crime. It was a crime against the state, and to be
wasteful of time was, in a manner, to rob the exchequer. The
Peruvian, laboring all his life for others, might be compared to
the convict in a treadmill, going the same dull round of
incessant toil, with the consciousness, that, however profitable
the results to the state, they were nothing to him.

[Footnote 37: Garcilasso. Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 15.]

[Footnote 38: "Solo el trabajo de las personas era el tributo que
se dava, porque ellos no poseian otra cosa." Ondegardo, Rel.
Prim., Ms.]
But this is the dark side of the picture. If no man could become
rich in Peru, no man could become poor. No spendthrift could
waste his substance in riotous luxury. No adventurous schemer
could impoverish his family by the spirit of speculation. The
law was constantly directed to enforce a steady industry and a
sober management of his affairs. No mendicant was tolerated in
Peru. When a man was reduced by poverty or misfortune, (it could
hardly be by fault,) the arm of the law was stretched out to
minister relief; not the stinted relief of private charity, nor
that which is doled out, drop by drop, as it were, from the
frozen reservoirs of "the parish," but in generous measure,
bringing no humiliation to the object of it, and placing him on a
level with the rest of his countrymen. *39

[Footnote 39: "Era tanta la orden que tenia en todos sus Reinos y
provincias, que no consentia haver ningun Indio pobre ni
menesteroso, porque havia orden i formas para ello sin que los
pueblos reciviesen vexacion ni molestia, porque el Inga lo suplia
de sus tributos." (Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms.) The Licentiate
Ondegardo sees only a device of Satan in these provisions of the
Peruvian law, by which the old, the infirm, and the poor were
rendered, in a manner, independent of their children, and those
nearest of kin, on whom they would naturally have leaned for
support; no surer way to harden the heart, he considers, than by
thus disengaging it from the sympathies of humanity; and no
circumstance has done more, he concludes, to counteract the
influence and spread of Christianity among the natives. (Rel.
Seg., Ms.) The views are ingenious, but, in a country where the
people had no property, as in Peru, there would seem to be no
alternative for the supernumeraries, but to receive support from
government or to starve.]

No man could be rich, no man could be poor, in Peru; but all
might enjoy, and did enjoy, a competence. Ambition, avarice, the
love of change, the morbid spirit of discontent, those passions
which most agitate the minds of men, found no place in the bosom
of the Peruvian. The very condition of his being seemed to be at
war with change. He moved on in the same unbroken circle in
which his fathers had moved before him, and in which his children
were to follow. It was the object of the Incas to infuse into
their subjects a spirit of passive obedience and tranquillity, -
a perfect acquiescence in the established order of things. In
this they fully succeeded. The Spaniards who first visited the
country are emphatic in their testimony, that no government could
have been better suited to the genius of the people; and no
people could have appeared more contented with their lot, or more
devoted to their government. *40

[Footnote 40: Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 12, 15. - Sarmiento, Relacion,
Ms., cap. 10]

Those who may distrust the accounts of Peruvian industry will
find their doubts removed on a visit to the country. The
traveller still meets, especially in the central regions of the
table-land, with memorials of the past, remains of temples,
palaces, fortresses, terraced mountains, great military roads,
aqueducts, and other public works, which, whatever degree of
science they may display in their execution, astonish him by
their number, the massive character of the materials, and the
grandeur of the design. Among them, perhaps the most remarkable
are the great roads, the broken remains of which are still in
sufficient preservation to attest their former magnificence.
There were many of these roads, traversing different parts of the
kingdom; but the most considerable were the two which extended
from Quito to Cuzco, and, again diverging from the capital,
continued in a southern direction towards Chili.

One of these roads passed over the grand plateau, and the other
along the lowlands on the borders of the ocean. The former was
much the more difficult achievement, from the character of the
country. It was conducted over pathless sierras buried in snow;
galleries were cut for leagues through the living rock; rivers
were crossed by means of bridges that swung suspended in the air;
precipices were scaled by stairways hewn out of the native bed;
ravines of hideous depth were filled up with solid masonry; in
short, all the difficulties that beset a wild and mountainous
region, and which might appall the most courageous engineer of
modern times, were encountered and successfully overcome. The
length of the road, of which scattered fragments only remain, is
variously estimated, from fifteen hundred to two thousand miles;
and stone pillars, in the manner of European milestones, were
erected at stated intervals of somewhat more than a league, all
along the route. Its breadth scarcely exceeded twenty feet. *41
It was built of heavy flags of freestone, and in some parts, at
least, covered with a bituminous cement, which time has made
harder than the stone itself. In some places, where the ravines
had been filled up with masonry, the mountain torrents, wearing
on it for ages, have gradually eaten a way through the base, and
left the superincumbent mass - such is the cohesion of the
materials - still spanning the valley like an arch! *42