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The Inca Empire

in the Andes (Bakewell 1984:14-19, 33-60; Stern 1988a:850-851, 1988b:887-888).
For example, the coca leaf and other goods consumed at Potosí were mass-produced in regionslike Pocona, the econ-omies of which were transformed as production for the market replaced subsistence cultivation. During the 1550s the members of encomienda communities were required to pay fixedrents in specified products; thus, the control they exercised o ver what they grew diminished, and their self-sufficiency was weakened as they were forced to rely on commercial transactions to pur-chasethe subsistence goods they were no longer able to produce for themselves. The high prices coca brought at Potosí allowed the encomenderos, who were indirectly engaged in its production, and merchantsand traders, who trafficked in it, to accumulate enormous profits that were not taxed by the colonial state (Larson 1988:46-49). Regional economies quickly became specialized; the inhabitants ofCórdoba grew cotton, while the encomenderos in Tucumán, Arequipa, Huánuco, and Piura bred mules, which they sold to transport coca leaf, silver bullion, and other goods throughout the Andean área (SempatAssadourian 1983:19-23,46, 213).
Lima was the other growth pole of the Andean economic space that began to flourish in the 1550s. It quickly provided the main linkage with Europe and the othercolonies in the Ameri-cas, the solé port of entry and departure for the outside world. By virtue of its role as the political and legal hub of the colony, Lima attempted to regúlate contact and commerce withthe outside. The bullion shipped to Spain and commodities im-ported from Europe were supposed to pass through the capital city. As the city's population grew, markets appeared for food and othersubsistence goods that could no longer be produced locally in quantities sufficient to satisfy its demands. Produce grown for the market replaced grain production in the immedi-ate vicinity of the...