without the use of money at all.
Unlike the neighboring Aztecs or Mayas, who used goods such as beans and textiles to buy and sell products, there was no concept of “money” among the Inca. So, how did they manage to create the largest—and wealthiest—empire in South America? Through a highly regimented system known as the “Mit’a.” From the age of 15, Incan males were required to provide physical labor to the state for a set number of days, sometimes as much as two-thirds of the year. They built public buildings and palaces, as well as an extensive system of roads (14,000 miles in all), which linked the empire together and allowed for its ongoing expansion. In return, the government provided all the basic necessities of life; food, clothing, tools, housing, etc. No money changed hands. Indeed, even if there had been money, there was simply nowhere for an Incan to spend it—no shops, no markets, no malls. That’s not to say that Incan society didn’t value the massive piles of gold and silver sitting beneath their lands. In fact, the Inca used these precious metals as part of their religious worship, considering gold the “sweat of the sun,” and silver the “tears of the moon.”
The Incas were an amazing people, as were also their pre-Inca predecessors in the ancient land of Peru, one of the cradles of civilization on Earth. Apart from the Mita, which you correctly point out, another keystone in their system was the good old potato or "papa", as it is known originally. If the Aztecs or Mayans built their societies on maize ("maíz"), the Inca empire was built on "papa", allowing this food system to be able to cope with extreme weathers and long distances all over the Tawantinsuyo, making it ideal for storing and stocking up. The development of agriculture and civilization are closely linked-up and the "papa" was a cornerstone in this process in ancient Peru, where the tuber crop was domesticated into thousands of different varieties. Truly, a gift from the Incas to the world...
You are very right