In the northernmost peripheries of the Inka Empire (northern Ecuador and Narifo Province, Colombia), an aboriginal status-trading complex resembling Mexican pochteca survived through and after Inka rule. Politically sponsored traders called mindalaes supplied aboriginal lords with sumptuary goods, and sometimes redistributed wealth so as to build political influence. Inkas' partial tolerance of this complex may reflect need for access to resources from zones radically resistant to
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Frank Salomon (1987) studied this question.