<P> Pachacuti would send spies to regions he wanted in his empire who would report back on their political organization, military might and wealth . He would then send messages to the leaders of these lands extolling the benefits of joining his empire, offering them presents of luxury goods such as high quality textiles, and promising that they would be materially richer as subject rulers of the Inca . Most accepted the rule of the Inca as a fait accompli and acquiesced peacefully . The ruler's children would then be brought to Cuzco to be taught about Inca administration systems, then return to rule their native lands . This allowed the Inca to indoctrinate the former ruler's children into the Inca nobility, and, with luck, marry their daughters into families at various corners of the empire . </P> <P> It was traditional for the Inca's son to lead the army; Pachacuti's son Túpac Inca began conquests to the north in 1463, and continued them as Inca after Pachucuti's death in 1471 . His most important conquest was the Kingdom of Chimor, the Inca's only serious rival for the coast of Peru . Túpac Inca's empire stretched north into modern - day Ecuador and Colombia . </P> <P> Túpac Inca's son Huayna Cápac added significant territory to the south . At its height, Tahuantinsuyu included Peru and Bolivia, most of what is now Ecuador, a large portion of modern - day Chile, and extended into corners of Argentina and Colombia . Tahuantinsuyu was a patchwork of languages, cultures and peoples . The components of the empire were not all uniformly loyal, nor were the local cultures all fully integrated . The portions of the Chachapoya that had been conquered were almost openly hostile to the Inca, and the Inca nobles rejected an offer of refuge in their kingdom after their troubles with the Spanish . For instance, the Chimú used money in their commerce, while the Inca empire as a whole had an economy based on exchange and taxation of luxury goods and labour (it is said that Inca tax collectors would take the head lice of the lame and old as a symbolic tribute). </P> <P> Economic productivity was based on collective labor which was organized in order to benefit the whole community . The ayni was used to help individual members of the community in need, such as a sick member of the community . The minka or team work represented community service and the mita was the tax paid to the Inca in the form of labor . The Inca did not use currency, economic exchanges were by reciprocity and took place in markets called catus . </P>

Who were the incas and what did they do