14. The Influence of the Incas

14 The Influence of the Incas The influence that the civilization of the Incas exerted upon foreign peoples after the conquest was very slight. None of the socialist colonies founded in America during the nineteenth cen tury-of which there were more than fifty in the United States alone-drew its inspiration from the ancient Peruvians; and when European socialism made its way to the nations on the Pacific coast of South America toward the middle of that century, it developed especially in Chile and Colombia, countries which had not been conquered by the Incas, or which had been only partially subdued by them.! The only great attempt at organization which can be related to the one we have been studying is that of the reductions of Paraguay.2 1. The Reductions of Paraguay It was the Jesuits who built this strange society. The motives that inspired them and the influences to which they were subjected have remained a matter of controversy to the present day. Op posing arguments, in each case purely a priori, are presented in two important works in the German language. E. Gothein con tends that the authors of the plan put into effect in that country were two disciples of Campanella, a quixotic Calabrian monk who was thrown into prison as the result of a conspiracy and was the 220 The Influence of the Incas 221 author of a utopian work written between 1602 and 1630 entitled Cittd del sole. In this book, authoritarianism and rationalism are pushed to the farthest extreme, even to the point of absurdity.

Communism is here complete, embracing women and children in its reach, and regimentation is extended to the most intimate acts of life. 3 M. ¥asbinder" on the other hand, advances the opinion that the Jesuits confined themselves to codifying ancient customs, thereby evidencing a wise opportunism and conforming to the sociological laws of the evolution of human societies. 4 The present writer is inclined to accept neither of these solu tions of the problem of the reductions, but rather to adopt a third, which was glimpsed in the eighteenth century by the dis tinguished Abbe Raynal and has been since suggested by the anonymous author of a paper presented to the Academy of Dijon in 1874 and recently by Prince Ruffo della Scaletta ..5 According to these authors, the Jesuits were inspired by the example of the Incas. A highly significant fact that confirms this conclusion is that the great founder of the reductions, Father de Torres, a provincial of the Jesuits, lived in Peru before he went to Paraguay. Besides, the very organization of the reductions bears evidence of Peruvian influence.

The impression conveyed by the reports of those who visited the reductions is one of strict and definite order. The prevailing uni formity recalls that of the empire of the Incas. The villages were all laid out according to the same plan, around a central square adorned with a statue of the patron saint of the community and surrounded by the church, the rectory, the widows' home, and the public stores. Demand was slight and strictly limited, although the Guarani is less temperate than the Indian of the plateau. The authorities undertook the distribution of seeds, meat, and clothing, and forbade luxury. Supply was strictly regulated. Labor was com pulsory. The fathers allotted jobs in the same way as they dis tributed everything else, assigning the Indians to their tasks in accordance with their aptitudes, whether for agricultural labor or the handicrafts. There were community lands and lands that be longed to God. The crops 'were garnered in storehouses. Private property was even more severely restricted than in Peru, since 222 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru neither land nor houses nor paddock nor cattle nor means of pro duction could be individually owned. There was, of course, no system of inheritance. Only a few textiles and some ornaments were left to the women. It 'was an example of total communism.

Yet the fathers showed no hostility toward private property as such. On the contrary, they seemed anxious to introduce the In dians to this idea. But they considered that the natives themselves were lacking in a sense of individuality, and they were probably not far from the truth. They tried to school the natives in private ownership by way of lifetime grants of lands that formed a third category in addition to those of the community and those reserved to God, but these did not seem to have interested the Indians, who preferred to hold and work the land in common. As for the labor of the artisans, this was done in workshops and organized in guilds. On the whole, the regime of the reductions was that of a bar racks: departure for 'work at a fixed hour, after Mass; curfew in the evening; and patrols to bring the laggards back to their houses! The equilibrium between supply and demand was assured by means of reserve stocks exactly as in Peru, and the natives were for bidden to move from one region to another. Statistical tables indi cated the needs of each reduction and the possibilities and the sum of its reserves.

As in Peru, too, trade was limited to the occasional exchange of superfluous goods. Money did not circulate, certain products serv ing as commodity-money. Certain echoes of the outside world did, nevertheless, succeed in penetrating these isolated villages. As a standard of reference-that is, as a measure of value-the Jesuits and the Indians made use of a nominal money, not coined, which was named for the Spanish currency peso hueco. The fathers drew up a list of fixed prices in pesos huecos in order to prevent hag gling. There was a whole category of operations in Paraguay that did not exist in Peru: those concerned with transactions with the Spanish world. The autarky could not, in fact, be absolute. The importation of necessities that the country could not produce weapons, tools, objects of art for the churches-had to be perThe Influence of the Incas 223 mitted, and these were paid for with mate, hides, and cotton. But this trade was wholly concentrated in the hands of the missionaries, and there is no need for us to examine it here.

One capital difference to be noted between the system of the reductions and that of the Inca empire is in the nature of the ruling class. In Paraguay the rulers did not constitute an elite-that is, an open group in the sense in which we have defined it. They formed a caste. There was no interpenetration between the fathers and those under their administration. The latter remained forever in a state of tutelage, and even the best of them could never aspire to rise to managerial rank. The very choice of the municipal au thorities-elected, according to Spanish tradition, by the natives -was carried out, in practice, in agreement with the suggestions of the priest. Thus, the fathers continued to regard the Indians as children and to treat them as such, and they remained in a condi tion of infancy. The result of all this was that the system was entirely artificial. The influence of the missionaries never went below the surface.

This is why, in spite of a century and a half of order and progress, in spite of the establishment of absolute security and incontestable well-being, everything collapsed the moment the Jesuits left. Alco holism became rampant, the family was broken up, the population suffered a fifty per cent decline in less than forty years, vices made their appearance again, and anarchy prevailed. The chief virtue that had been inculclated in the people was that of obedience. In Paraguay, as in Peru, a relatively prosperous state had been founded upon the destruction of individual initiative and a provi dent concern for the future. The existence of an elite in the first instance and of a superior caste in the second prevented complete stagnation so long as the system continued to exist, but the masses remained amorphous, passive, unable to achieve individuality, and consequently proved incapable of self-direction once their masters were gone. The system is thus shown to be incapable of forming fully developed men. The socialized mass may be happy, but the depths of the soul receive no stimulation and remain sterile. There is no creative genius, no will to excel, no projection toward the future. In this respect, the system is a complete failure. 6 224 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru 2. Spanish Literature and the Utopians The Spaniards, who naturally might have come under Peru vian influence more than any other Europeans, confined them selves to studying the agrarian system, and even then chiefly in the light of what they knew of Greek and Roman history. The Licen tiate F. Murcia de la Llana in 1624, Floranes in 1797, and Florez Estrada in 1839 sought to justify their own views by reference to the Inca system.7 It IS strange that Spanish literature itself should have drawn so little inspiration from preColumbian America. It is difficult to find in the "golden century" even a little writing that has anything to do with the Incas, such as the Aurora en CopacaV'anaof Calderon de la Barca, a type of religious drama in which idolatry makes a flesh-and-blood appearance upon the scene. No poet of talent has celebrated the conquest of Peru. The Conquista de la Nueva Cas tilla~ published in Paris in 1848, and the Lima fundada of P. de Peralta Barnuevo, which appeared in Lima in 1732, are works of little value. Among theatrical pieces we may mention the Trilogia de las hazafias de los Pizarros en el Nuevo Mundo y sus aV'enturas amorosas en la metr6poli~ by Tirso de Molina, and the Atahualpa of Cortes (1784).

Even stranger is the fact that most of the utopians have neglected South America. Plato remains the source from which the founders of ideal future communities-foremost among them, Thomas Mores-draw their inspiration. Campanella and Morelly seem to be exceptions to the general rule. The first perhaps borrowed ele ments of his system from the Peruvians, in addition to the very title of his book, which we have already mentioned, Civitas solis (1630).9 The second, who professes to have taken the Incas for his models in his Basiliade~ speaks of common ownership and cultiva tion of the fields, public storehouses, and even highways "with a few rustic habitations set down at equal distances along their sides"; but the society he describes is communistic and is situated in a very fertile country, which differentiates it profoundly from the preColumbian societies of South America. 10 Nevertheless, it The Influence of the Incas 225 may be said that it was through the agency of Morelly's book that the empire of the Incas, however little known and badly under stood, exerted a certain influence upon modern socialism.

Sir Francis Bacon, in his New Atlantis (1627), mentions Peru several times, but without drawing any inspiration from the Peru vian system of organizing society.11 On the other hand, we find in the works of the utopians, as is natural, ideas that were put into practice in the time of the Incas. In the writings of Vairasse d'Alais, who was acquainted with Gar cilaso's Commentarios) we visit a country where all the inhabitants are rich without possessing anything of their own, and where "no one wants for what is necessary and useful in life." 12 In Bulwer Lytton's The Coming Race (1871), there is a relative inequality of fortune without real poverty. In the works of Retif de la Bretonne 13 we find agrarian communities. In Edward Bellamy's still-famous Looking Backward (1888), there is an all-encompassing bureauc racy and regulated production. But it is in the imaginary com munities of More, Morelly (in the Basiliade),14 and Cabet,15 with their elaborately devised apparatus of regimentation, that we come closest to the empire of the Incas.

3. Historians and Moralists Among historians and philosophers, a great many, especially in France, have concerned themselves with the Spanish empire in the New World, but chiefly from the moral point of view. Taking the murder of Atahualpa as an example, Bodin confined himself to demonstrating that in politics the strongest always find a pre text for doing what he wants. It is in vain that Atabalippa pays the ransom demanded of him and then embraces the Catholic faith: he is put to death just the same. "When there are no more excuses, the one whose material position is the stronger never allows any one to get the better of him, and the weaker is in the wrong." 16 Montaigne, who had read G6mara, Benzoni, and perhaps Las Casas, extols the virtues of the American natives, and, in criticizing the Spaniards, is directing his aim at the whole of the civilized world of his day.17 Even in Spain, Guevara, in L'horloge des 226 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru princes (1529), and Ercilla y Zuniga, in the Araucana (1590), pro tested against the excesses committed by the conquerors. 1S In the seventeenth century, as in the sixteenth, the Spanish con querors continued to be severely criticized, with a purpose that was sometimes manifestly political. Benefiting from the horror inspired by their executioners, the Indians become models of virtue. 19 4. The Inca Vogue in the Eighteenth Century It was in the eighteenth century that the Incas were taken up with enthusiasm in France, but these Incas were the "good providers" pictured by the readers of Garcilaso and Las Casas. Al though they were not quite so fashionable as the "noble savages"

of Paraguay or Tahiti, they played a prominent role in comedies and ballets. Rameau's Les Indes galantes (1735) tells of the love between a daughter of the Incas and a Spanish officer. Voltaire, who quotes Garcilaso, Herrera, Zarate, and Las Casas, devotes a short and not very instructive chapter in his Essai sur les moeurs to the conquest of Peru. 20 On the other hand, he wrote A1zire., a drama which was presented for the first time on January 27, 1736, and which enjoyed an incredible success. From our point of view it is altogether without interest, for the author did not undertake to document what he"wrote on the history and customs of the Indians. 21 The American invasion became more pronounced in the second half of the eighteenth century. In succession came La Peruvienne (1748) by Boissi, another La peruvienne., this one by Rochon de Chabannes (1754); Manco Capac by Leblanc (1763);22 and Azor ou 1es Peruviens by Du Rozoi (1770). Madame de Graffigny's Let tres d'une Peruvienne was published in Paris in two volumes in 1752 and enjoyed a real success. In it we find an Indian woman inditing, by means of quipus, lengthy missives in the flowery and bombastic style of the period. 23 In 1777, J. F. Marmontel published his celebrated novel, Les Incas ou 1a destruction de l'empire du Perou-fanciful, tedious, and nauseatingly sentimental. He piles one improbability on top The Influence of the Incas 227 of another and, to make matters worse, constantly refers to sources and insists upon the historical character of his work. He supposes that a Mexican comes to tell the Peruvians of the misfortunes of his country, and he shows us the Inca, at a moment when the em pire is threatened on all sides, pardoning a Spaniard who had abducted a Virgin of the Sun-an exceptionally grave crime .. as we know. Everything is so well ordered in the state which this writer depicts that one finds oneself admiring disorder, and the inhab itants are so exaggeratedly virtuous that we are almost tempted to regret the absence of vice.24 Finally, in spite of their extreme brevity, the entries appearing in the Grande Encyclopedie under the words "Inca" and "Peru"

also contain several major errors. We get the impression, as we read, that when they spoke of South America, the French of the eighteenth century felt that they could give free rein to their imagination with impunity: they would always find a public ready to believe them. Certain more scientific works have also been devoted to Peru. We have already mentioned Abbe de Pauw. In spite of his partial ity and his exaggerations, one is almost grateful to this paradoxical writer for having dared to breast the "inexhaustible torrent of glacial sensibility" 25 by which all his contemporaries were being carried away. As for Abbe Raynal, who, like Abbe de Pauw, is already known to readers of the present volume, he has given us, in his Histoire philosophique et politique des etablissements et du commerce des Europeens dans les deux Indes~ a work very char acteristic of the state of mind at the end of the century, when peo ple were not yet willing to give up the ideal of the "noble savage,"

and yet, after the voyages of La Condamine and Bougainville, were no longer able to be under any illusions. 26 Abbe Raynal at once extols Peru and finds fault with it. His ideas are numerous but confused, and his conclusions are questionable. In Book VII of the second volume of this two-volume work, the author paints an enchanting picture of the Inca empire. Then, not ing that the system was one of collective ownership, he asks himself how the Peruvians, deprived of the stimulus of personal interest, escaped falling into extreme poverty . The answer he gives involves 228 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru a curious line of reasoning: The Peruvian monarchs, being un acquainted with money, obliged the Indians, by way of taxation, to cultivate the lands belonging to the Inca, and "their patrimony was so confusedly mingled with that of their subjects that it was impos sible to make one fruitful without doing the same for the other."

He believes that the Peruvians never succeeded in raising them selves above the level of the barest necessity. "One may be sure," he says, "that they would have acquired the means of varying and extending their enjoyments if a system of alienable and hereditary landed property had stimulated their talents." The celebrated philosopher also asserts that trade did not exist, that the specialized skills were not perfected, and that the Spaniards' accounts of cities, public buildings, highways, and quipus -are legends; but this does not prevent him from censuring those who have treated the accounts of the Incas as fables. Finally, according to him, in the absence of writing, the laws were bound to degenerate imper ceptibly, but by good fortune the absolute ignorance of gold and silver money prevented the monarch from hoarding treasure. De cidedly, Abbe Raynal does not unreservedly admire Peruvian in stitutions and conceals considerable uneasiness of mind under a factitious enthusiasm. 27 Adam Smith, though briefer than Abbe Raynal, was no better inspired. The English economist assures us that the Indians of Mexico and Peru could not have enjoyed a true civilization, and from this he concludes that the population of these two empires must have been sparse: It seems impossible that either of these empires could have been so much improved or so well cultivated as at present, when they are plenti fully furnished with all sorts of European cattle, and when the use of iron, of the plow, and of many of the arts of Europe, have been intro duced among them.28 But the populousness of every country must be in proportion to the degree of its improvement and cultivation. In spite of the cruel destruction of the natives which followed the con quest, these two great empires are, probably, more populous now than they ever were before: and the people are surely very different; for we must acknowledge, I apprehend, that the Spanish creoles are in many respects superior to the ancient Indians. 29 The Influence of the Incas 229 It is evident that the distinguished British economist was not exempt from prejudice.

As opposed to Abbe de Pauw, Count de Carli draws a cheerful picture of Peru, a gross distortion of reality for which Garcilaso remains responsible. The Peruvian system, he would have us be lieve, was an achievement of the Incas alone. It was founded on the distinction between "natural" and "legal" ownership, and it suc ceeded in realizing absolute happiness. Yet this author is not alto gether without merit. He is wittily critical of De Pauw, who "con sidered everything savage that could not be found in Berlin or Breslau," and who, "by a strange metamorphosis, seems to have inherited the soul of the monk Vincent Valverde"-the monk who, at Cajamarca, presented the Inca with the Gospels and gave the signal for the slaughter. De Carli notes that Peru could not be described as a conventual state or a monastic community, for "this form of government can be effective only within a very narrow sphere." He points out, quite correctly, that the elimination of artificial needs, which resulted from the Incas' energetic policies, is the foundation of happiness in every human society.so He con cludes in a burst of enthusiasm, excessive but sincere: "I am so full of the idea of the ancient government of Peru that I actually believe myself to be a Peruvian. It seems to me, at least, that I should like to see a similar system put into effect somewhere in this world. I shall manage to enjoy perfect happiness for the rest of my days." 31 In 1789, on the eve of the French Revolution, the Academy of Lyon sponsored a discussion on the subject, "The Influence of the Discovery of America on the Happiness of Mankind." Among the works presented, that of Abbe Genty is the only one worthy of our attention. S2 This author, like Abbe Raynal, acknowledges both that property was collectively owned in the land of the Incas and that the people were very happy; but, as he considers all socialization to be an evil, he seeks, by subtle reasoning, to discover a way out of the impasse in 'which he finds himself. According to him, the absence of private ownership is the cause of the imperfections that one observes in Peruvian civilization: "The divers monuments and all the produc230 A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru tions of the arts owed their existence only to prodigious efforts of patience and industry; the greater part of the national effort was wasted for lack of proper means of directing it and multiplying its effects." 33 Finally, if the Peruvians were happy, it was only a temporary happiness; the Spaniards came at the very moment when misfortune was on the horizon. Abbe Genty's conclusion is dis couraging. The whole world was bound to expect "inestimable benefits" from the discovery of America, but these "have been changed into deadly poisons by the fury of the conquerors and the ambition of the kings." 34 In short, the authors seek in the Incas' system of organization as reported to them by the small number of chroniclers whose works they know-the confirmation of their own political and eco nomic theories.

In the absence of exact factual information, the controversies that were carried on from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century remained quite sterile. The champions of the American natives evoked the "noble savage" of literature, from Montaigne and Char ron to Guendeville and Father Lafitau. 35 The polemical literature in opposition to this thesis likewise included great names: Buffon, Hegel, and De Maistre. Finally, there were the moderate and the hesitant, like Abbe Raynal, whom we have already cited. Some, like Abbe Pernety, sought to rehabilitate the Indians of Peru; others, like Clavigero, devoted their attention to the Mexicans, or, like Father Molina, to the people of Chile. It is surprising to note the credulity and partiality of a number of celebrated writers. Rousseau believed that giants existed in America. Voltaire writes, quite seriously, that in the New World the lions are timid and that in Mexico the pigs have their navel on the back. De Pauw asserts that the heads of the Americans are square or cubical, that many animals lose their tails, and that the dogs do not bark. 36 In the nineteenth century the controversy subsided, and the scientific works described in our Appendix ("The Historical Sources") began to appear. The picture of preColumbian Peru became blurred, it lost its legendary quality, and public opinion The Influence of the Incas 231 ceased to be interested in the Indians. It seemed as if in the twen tieth century the Incas would scarcely be mentioned any longer, except in general histories and a few romantic works of pure im agination. 37 But today we see them once more emerging from the shadows.

The reason for this is to be found in the predominant interest presently taken in economic questions. The conflicts between the advocates of different systems are becoming very sharp. Specialists, statesmen, and demagogues are in search of arguments and exam ples. Now the doctrine opposed to the liberalism that ruled the world in the nineteenth century is socialism, and preColumbian Peru provides the only available example of the application of this doctrine to a great empire. The problems we have just been ex amining are those that we face today. We are witnessing in Europe the advance of etatism or of general syndicalism, the establishment of a controlled economy, and the destruction of individuality and hence of the elite. The America of the preColumbian era provides us with valu able lessons in this respect. Let us hope that we can hold fast to them and put them to use. There is no such thing as historical inevitability. It is incumbent upon us to take action if we do not wish to become the subjects of a new Inca empire.

Conclusion It is for the reader to fill out the picture of Peruvian society whose outlines 'we have been able here only to sketch. We shall be happy if we have succeeded in arousing in him even a small part of the pleasure that we ourselves have felt in perusing the pages of the old chroniclers, sharing in their astonishment, and experi encing, as they did, the sensation of discovering a new world.