but probably no more than could live comfortably if the pastoral resources were used to the fullest extent.
Effect of the Spanish Conquest on Population Distribution
There may have been a slight change of climate in the past few hundred years or more that led to the abandoning of the terraces in the poorer locations; but, as a whole, this cause has so far not been separable from a much more important one of human origin, In earlier times, when the social structure and business organization of the Indians was in a primitive state, undisturbed by the modern towns and industries of the Span- iard and other foreigners, each region had to produce much the greater part of the food and clothing it required. The history of the organization of the Inca Empire shows a certain degree of communication from place to place, but the means of traffic were so limited that this could hardly have had a thorough- going and intimate effect upon the life of the whole plateau. Granting, however, any degree of communication one may choose to assume within reasonable limits in the pre-Spanish days, it is still true that when the Spaniard came, organized the modern towns, and exerted himself in many instances to gather the Indians into compact communities, there were developed resources and trade currents that changed the old established ways of life. It was one of the great contributions of the white race to Indian economy that difficult sites were made unnecessary. The amount of human labor spent upon stout stone houses on hilltops or steep hill slopes and in getting to them and down again for purposes of the chase or in tilling the valley soil is almost incalculable. When the Spaniard came the intertribal wars diminished and then stopped altogether, and settled life became permanently established in more accessible situations.
The mines called away increasing numbers of Indians from their farms, and the city life also attracted an important Indian population. As the taste for articles of foreign manufacture grew, shops by Indians for the sale of goods to Indians increased
