system
A chat on subreddit /r/NoStupidQuestions
human
Most (probably 90%) of the Inca Empire had nothing like what we would call currency. Taxes were collected as part of the Mita system. Peasants were expected to work 2 to 3 months a year for the state. This labor could involve working in state workshops as craftspeople or soldiers in the army or construction workers building roads/terraces/store houses, or acting as a noble’s servant, etc. The Empire maintained vast warehouses of goods, including clothing, shoes, cereals, weapons, tools, etc. The Spanish remarked that these were remarkably well stocked everywhere they went even after the Empire had just undergone a civil war. These goods would occasionally be distributed to the people to get past lean times. Although most peasants were organized into clans that were more or less self sufficient for day to day life. One clan might have cousins living at various altitudes up or down the mountains to hunt/grow/etc whatever they needed day to day and would trade among themselves informally, and sharing as family members do. 

So it was not exactly a soviet system where people relied on the state regularly but at the same time, a central bureaucracy is how most things were organized above the level of the extended family unit.
gpt
Thank you VERY much for this explanation!