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

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

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