Tribute, Gods and Glyphs: Aztec and Inca Society, Religion and Culture

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Goods or labour owed to a ruler or the state instead of money-based taxes — the basis of both empires' non-monetary economies.

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A labour draft system requiring commoners to work on state projects such as causeways, temples and canals in Tenochtitlan.

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A rotational labour tax: every household owed a set number of days of labour per year to the state instead of paying in goods or money.

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Both were kin-based communal landholding units. The calpulli was a clan-based Aztec neighbourhood holding land communally; the ayllu was an Inca extended kin-group that farmed collectively and shared the harvest.

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Inca state storehouses along the road network holding surplus food and goods, used to supply workers, armies, and provide disaster relief.

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A system of knotted cords used to record numerical data (tribute owed, labour performed, census figures), read by trained officials called quipucamayocs. It was not a writing system.

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The Aztec believed the sun god Huitzilopochtli needed human blood to keep the sun moving across the sky, so warfare was partly waged to capture prisoners for ritual sacrifice.

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He was believed to be a direct descendant of the sun god Inti, so obedience to him was framed as obedience to the gods, legitimising his authority to demand mit'a labour and tribute.

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Similarity: both needed systems to record tribute and history. Difference: the Aztec used pictographic codices (true writing), while the Inca had no writing system and used knotted quipu cords instead.

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Raised, artificial farming islands built on Lake Texcoco, allowing intensive agriculture to feed the large population of Tenochtitlan despite limited dry land.

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They were a specialist long-distance merchant class who traded luxury goods across and beyond the empire, and also served as spies and diplomats for the state.

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The Aztec economy combined state tribute with genuine market trade (tianguis, pochteca); the Inca economy had almost no market trade, with the state redistributing goods directly through storehouses instead.