Reading this, it doesn't sound all that different from Serfdom in Europe. Essentially, people were tied to the land, and in return the noble provided protection

Reading this, it doesn't sound all that different from Serfdom in Europe. Essentially, people were tied to the land, and in return the noble provided protection. The main difference seems to be the centrality of supply distribution. With serfdom, the serfs were basically required to work for the lord/noble and then had to also do their own food growing/production to survive. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom) Having a central authority ensuring no-one starves and everyone had all the essentials allowed for much better specialization and efficiency. Other cultures evolved into similar specialization via trade and offered distributed societies. The Inca-style state would have similar limitations to Soviet Union, where all goods that were not produced within its boundaries were virtually unattainable by the common people. This also stifled innovation in areas that the state was not focusing on. Just look at the Soviet consumer car manufacturing sector - an automatic transmission was virtually unheard of until 90s imports started pouring in.