The strongest evidence for merchant specialists in the Andean region comes from relatively peripheral areas of the Inka Empire, from the Pacific coast of what is now Peru, and from the coast and highlands of prehispanic Ecuador. The coastal Late prehispanic traders of Chincha, near the Paracas peninsula, have been described as consisting of 6000 merchants who traded in Cusco, among the Colla (and presumably the Collagua), and in Ecuador, but little is known about how these expeditions were organized(Patterson 1987;Rostworowski 1976;Rostworowski 1977;Sandweiss 1992). LaLone(1982: 308)notes that Rostworowski was not able to connect Chincha traders with marketplaces despite her assertion that these represented commercial exchange. Sandweiss(1992: 10)believes that Chincha trading expanded a great deal under the Inka following the Inka conquest of the Chimu to the north.
Coastal products such as spondylous and other goods were known to have been transported in large balsa rafts. There are numerous contact-period accounts of merchants plying the Pacific littoral beginning with the renowned loaded boat of balsa logs encountered off the coast of Ecuador by Pizarro on his second trip south, several years before the actual Spanish invasion of the Andes(Hemming 1970;Murra 1980: 140). The boat had a crew of 20 and had a small cabin and cotton sails. Murra is confident the boat was an Inka "registry" because the crew knew Quechua and a few were captured by the Pizarro's army who later used them as interpreters. While the Spanish paid particular attention to precious metals, the contents appear to have contained wealth goods including gold and silver ornaments, bracelets and anklets, headdresses and mirrors, and a great deal of cotton, wool and rich embroidery. A small weighing scale as well as a great deal of shell, probably spondylous and strombus, were found on board(Hemming 1970;Murra 1980: 140). Although the activity of this boat was described as trade (the word rescataris used in the text) by the Spanish observer Sámano-Xerez written in 1527-1528(Porras Barrenechea 1937: 21), it is highly likely that this boat, with its cargo of elite goods, was in fact carry ritual offerings from the Inka to some northern destination. The evidence for long distance exchange between Ecuador and Mesoamerica has been long been a topic of interest in New World archaeology(Coe 1960;Zeidler 1977).
The strongest evidence for mercantilism and markets in the prehispanic Andean highlands comes from colonial Ecuador(Hartmann 1971;Salomon 1986). Hartmann argues that the Inka economy had a significant market component based the following evidence: (1) the Spanish saw gatherings that they identified as "markets" from the very earliest reports, although as they were coming from Mexico the Spanish used the Nahuatlword " tianguez"; (2) commodities were plentiful and varied, including both staple and luxury items; (3) both Quechua and Aymara had specialized terms for buying and selling; (4) market activity was not suppressed by the Inka authorities, only regulated to suit their interests(Hartmann 1971).
The existence of markets in prehispanic Ecuador is a particularly interesting question because the Quito area was conquered by the Inka only 30 years prior to the Spanish invasion and therefore the region had only recently been absorbed into the Inka Empire. Salomon(1986)examined the ethnohistoric evidence for precolonial and colonial markets in highland Ecuador and found that the contact period evidence provides insights into pre-Inka customs as well as the Inka response. The Quito valley is in a position to serve as a hub for the transfer of products from the Amazon lowlands, the Pacific coast, and the páramohighlands. In this sense, the Quito valley is in a similar geographical configuration, but on a smaller scale and a different ecological zone than the Lake Titicaca Basin. The strong dependence of early Spanish residents on the markets, and the founding of new markets by Spaniards, leads to some uncertainty as to the precolonial importance of markets. However, there is a variety of evidence for a pre-Inka merchant class in central Ecuador called mindaláesthat gathered in stationary markets and controlled trade in cotton, coca, and salt that they would bring from lower-lying regions(Salomon 1986: 203-204). Barter exchange between non-specialized traders occurred as well, typically of household surplus goods, and Salomon argues that both mindalamerchant organization and non-specialized barter were ancient developments in Ecuador. In contrast, Patterson(1987)argues that the merchantile organization was not a long-established system but rather a Late prehispanic period response to opportunities presented on the northern border of Tiwantinsuyu. Vertical archipelago organization is also found in Ecuador both in agricultural production and in targeted procurement communities such as stable colonies for salt production(Oberem 1981 [1976]: 79). However, Salomon shows that archipelagos were, in most cases, a late phenomenon that was introduced by the Inka. In addition, obsidian distributions in Ecuador can provide insights into Andean exchange in a context with functioning markets(Burger, et al. 1994).
As for trade specialization elsewhere in the Andes, LaLone(1982: 307)sees a latitudinal gradient from north to south where markets and freelance traders may have been more abundant in the northern periphery of the Inka empire, and subdued or non-existent in areas full under Inka control. A notable exception to this gradient are the sea traders from Chincha(Rostworowski 1977;Sandweiss 1992). The evidence is far less secure for the southern periphery of the Inka Empire, but the implication of the Ecuadorian data is that solving zonation problems through the vertical archipelago approach was promoted by the Inka in Ecuador following the Inka conquest, which perhaps calls into question the pervasiveness and pre-Inka antiquity of the vertical archipelago strategy in the south-central Andes as well.
In contemporary contexts, peddlers are found with frequency in areas that form boundaries areas between different commercial spheres of interaction and lacking in consistent distribution of goods. Browman (1990: 422) reviews ethnographic evidence for mobile peddlerswho perform bulk-forming and bulk-breaking services in the south-central Andean highlands. The peddlers will provide manufactured items to rural pastoral communities, though often at a substantial mark-up, and will trade for items like hides and wool in time for purchasing fairs in the regional centers. The puna between Lake Titicaca and the western slopes in Arequipa are particularly active with comerciantes ambulanteswho schedule their travel cycles to correspond with patron saint festivals, as well as distributing goods to communities without regular markets (Flores Ochoa 1977: 148 ;Flores Ochoa and Najar Vizcarra 1976) as well as traveling herbalists and related groups (Bastien 1987). In the small community of Cerrillos in southwestern Bolivia near the Argentinian border, Nielsen (2001: 166) reports that peddlers, referred to as cambalacheros, would pedal bicycles from the city of Oruro bringing clothes and metal pots to sell or to barter for hides.
The Collaguas of the Colca valley were frequently visited by itinerant peddlers from Puno, according to Casaverde (1977: 185). These vendors known as polveñosmaintain established compadrerelationshipswith Colca valley households in order to have reliable hosts and potential buyers in the valley. Although transactions frequently take place through barter and the host and other residents are not obliged to trade, the profit motive of the peddlers is understood. These examples illustrate some of the variety in forms of distribution that may have had some basis in the prehispanic economy.