Gold And The Incas

One has to go back to 1200 A.C. in history in order to know more about the Inca civilisation. By 1442, the Incas had made such a strong empire that the Inca Empire has been called the greatest empire prior to Columbian America. They possessed an amazing administration system, the basis of which was the barter system of luxury goods, and labour.

Every citizen of the empire had to work in order to get food and clothing. There was no other form of payments. They hoarded up gold and silver, and used them in building temples specifically for the Sun god. They believed that gold was the sweat of the sun, and silver was the tears of the moon.

For the Incas, gold portrayed power, eternity, and the blessing of the Sun god. They regarded gold as a sacred element of Nature. The Incas used it in the form of a bribe, or an offering or as luxury gifts. The Inca Empire spread vast within a short duration. They did not use force to take over other areas, but offered improved lives, and fortune, in the form of gold. This is how they utilised gold in order to attract areas in close proximity, to join their confederacy.

Agriculture was the major industry of the Incas. The common people were compelled to pay tax via working for the Empire. Since everyone had to put in time in order to develop the kingdom, a strong and well-connected network of roads throughout the empire was formed. The Incas were extremely artistic and creative, and were experienced in the art of sculpture making.

The artifacts made by the Incas so many years ago, displayed in several museums, continue to inspire the imaginations of millions of people all over the world. The aesthetic sense of the Incas, and their fascination with valuable metals like silver, bronze, copper, and gold can be observed in statuettes made of gold, replicas of maize, and other plants carved in gold.

Large gold houses, and palaces of the dead kings, containing heaps of gold, were present. The successors of the dead kings did not take the gold left by those before them, but gathered more gold and silver for themselves. Historians say that the Incas’ love of gold, and other precious metals was just an aesthetical issue; but this seems to be only half-true.

If it was only meant for aesthetics then why did they bury their gold treasures in a secret place where no one could find them? It was either their long termed investment, or some form of religious belief that made them hide their accumulated wealth in the form of gold in such a way that even after centuries, people wonder about the whereabouts of that hidden gold treasure.

Strict conditions regarding transportation of gold, or silver from the Cuzco, the centre of the Empire were in place. The emperors led luxurious lives, with their ostentatious displays of gold and silver, which was never purchased, or was never sold in the kingdom; it was only used for ornamentation and sculpture making. The scintillating gold of the Incas appealed to the greedy side of the Spanish conquistadors who ceased the empire. The fact that they could not succeed in finding the gold, for which they invaded, and destroyed the Incas, is ironic, as it never happened.

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