The backbone of the Tiwanaku’s economy was agricul-ture, and most economic activity related to agricultural pro-duction and engineering.. In combination with an extensive irrigation sys-
Trang 140,000 inhabitants The city began as a small village in about
200 b.c.e., but at its height it was arguably the most important
city in the Andes
The backbone of the Tiwanaku’s economy was
agricul-ture, and most economic activity related to agricultural
pro-duction and engineering The city and its surrounding area
were located at a high elevation, with relatively warm days but
cold nights Further, the region had poor soil and somewhat
sparse rainfall Accordingly, Tiwanaku devoted its labor and
resources to a number of agricultural innovations Its
farm-ers practiced raised-bed agriculture, increasing the yield of
the land In combination with an extensive irrigation
sys-tem, terraced fields on hillsides, and raised beds in the
shal-lows of rivers and lakes, the region was able to harvest more
potatoes from an acre of land than farmers can today using
modern methods and fertilizers Connecting the fields was
an elaborate system of canals, which in time were stocked
with fish for consumption These canals not only provided
water but also absorbed heat from the sun, providing a kind
of thermal “blanket” to prevent crops from freezing at night
Thus, virtually 100 percent of Tiwanaku’s economic
activ-ity was devoted to agriculture Farmers, of course, cultivated
and harvested crops, but engineers, road builders,
stonema-sons, and other craftsmen devoted their time and resources
to building and maintaining the infrastructure that
sup-ported agriculture
The other major culture that was a precursor to the Inca
was that of the Wari While the people of Tiwanaku were
peaceful farmers who showed little interest in extending their
realm, the Wari were a warlike culture that spread through
military conquest They lived in modern-day Peru, reaching
the height of their power between 700 and 1200
The Wari were able to achieve their power because they
had numerous economic resources These resources included
minerals, petroleum, fish, sugar, wool, cotton, pottery,
food-stuffs, and coffee The Wari fed themselves by using terraced
fields for agriculture, making their fields far more productive
and increasing the amount of land available for cultivation
Extensive irrigation systems watered the fields Beyond that,
though, the Wari economy relied on trade and was a
stop-over on a trade network that extended from the Pacific coast
inland To foster this trade, the Wari built an extensive road
network, roads that were later used by the Inca culture These
roads also were used for the movement of troops who
con-quered neighboring regions and absorbed them into the Wari
Empire Additionally, the Wari economy revolved around
construction and engineering The Wari constructed
numer-ous cities that were laid out in precise ways, some of them
crisscrossed by underground tunnels Their stone buildings
even had ventilation systems and were resistant to
earth-quakes Wari city planners and engineers would be the envy
of modern people who perform these tasks
All of this construction activity implies a system of or-ganization, a class structure with skilled tradesmen, a large labor force, supervisors to oversee the activities, and a class
of entrepreneurs to conduct trade Unfortunately, though, historians know little about the day-to-day workings of the culture, primarily because the Wari left behind no written re-cords Much the same can be said of other South American cultures that rose, prospered, and fell during this era The Inca Empire, which dominated the western coast of South America from the late 12th century into the 1400s, built
an economic system based on an abundance of resources, in-cluding water; agricultural land; mines; precious and semi-precious metals, such as gold, silver, and copper; and a large force of peasant labor The Inca economy was a command economy, with the state controlling resources, products, and the allocation of labor, although local barter between
indi-viduals was tolerated A system of tribute called mita funded
the state’s enterprises The economic system depended, first,
on the ability of the state to marshal a large labor force in the construction of cities, irrigation projects, the terracing
of mountain land for agriculture, and especially the empire’s vast network of roads, which linked every part of the empire and was used by llama caravans carrying goods Addition-ally, a corps of runners and couriers carried messages as well
as fresh fish from the coastline to the interior These couriers, who were posted at intervals, could cover up to 1,200 miles in
as few as six days
AsiA And The PAcific
by Kenneth r hall
Domestic welfare in Asia improved during the medieval age because of the increased agricultural productivity of essen-tial grains and cash crops Different localities specialized
in marketplace products such as cotton, indigo, sugarcane, tea, and pepper Long-distance trade was supported by the development of road or river networks that linked upstream urban centers and coastal regions In some cases Asia’s me-dieval-era urban centers were coincident with the centers of political power, as was the norm in China; in other cases,
as in India and Japan, they arose from marketplaces that developed around a major ritual complex or commercial emporium that was linked to other centers of trade Urban residents, who might number 400,000 or more, consumed substantial quantities of food and demanded luxury goods This had an enormous impact on the surrounding country-side, which provided food and local handicrafts It also neces-sitated increasing numbers of local artisans and merchants
economy: Asia and the Pacific 319