Editing Inca road system (section)

===Trade===
Roads and bridges were essential to the political cohesion of the Inca state and to the redistribution of goods within it.<ref name=Thompson1966/>{{rp|632}} All resources in the Empire were the property of the ruling elite.<ref name="Jenkins 2001 659">{{cite news|last=Jenkins|first=David|title=Network Analysis of Inka Roads, Administrative Centers, and Storage Facilities|year=2001|publisher=[[Duke University Press]]|page=659|edition=Volume 48}}</ref> Commercial exchanges between manufacturers or producers and buyers were not practiced, as the management of all goods came under the control of the central authority. The redistribution of goods was known as the [[vertical archipelago]]: this system formed the basis for trade throughout the Inca Empire.<ref name="D'Altroy1992"/>{{rp|118}} As different sections of the Empire had different resources, the roads were used to distribute goods to other parts of the Empire that were in need of them. Roads reinforced the strength of the Inca Empire, as they allowed for the empire's multitude of resources to be distributed through a set system to ensure all parts of the Empire were satisfied.<ref name="D'Altroy1992"/>{{rp|120}} 
Nevertheless, scholars<ref name="garrido"/><ref name="Nielsen">Nielsen, Alex (2000). Andean Caravans: An Ethnoarchaeology Ph.D. Dissertation in Anthropology - University of Arizona - Tucson</ref> have noted that there was a possible barter of goods along the roads between caravanners and villagers: a sort of "secondary exchange" and "daily swapping".