The Incas did not trade with their neighbors; if a culture had something the Incas wanted or needed, they conquered it. Because the empire became so large, the Incas needed nothing that they did not have. But trade within the empire was brisk. All trading was on the barter system-trading goods or services for items considered by both parties to be of equal value. The Incas had no form of currency.
Inca communities produced a variety of food for the empire: corn and potatoes, quinoa, dried llama or fish, herbs, peppers, and hundreds of other foodstuffs. Different regions may have eaten different foods, but hunger was rare. Mountain people ate more guinea pig and llama meat; coastal groups ate fish and seafood.
What trading that did occur took place within the empire at regional markets, where people traded cloth for llama skins, dried llama meat for dried fish, pottery for medicinal herbs, and so on. For example, if a woman with a sore eye needed medical care, she might pay four potatoes or a length of cloth for treatment by the local herbalist.
One factor that limited any potential trade was a lack of transportation. The Incas did not have the wheel, so carts were not a transportation option. They did not have horses or oxen to bear heavy loads; humans or llamas carried goods on their backs.
The Incas did have boats and rafts, but they were usually used for short-distance travel or for fishing. Rafts on mountain rivers and lakes were made of reeds and, occasionally logs, but they were not strong enough to bear heavy loads without sinking. Along the Pacific Ocean, larger oceangoing rafts, built from logs and sealskins, carried fishermen out to sea. They, too, did not carry heavy burdens, nor were they strong enough to travel over great distances.
World History
