VIII. As a consequence of what I have just said in this chapter about the obligation and interests of princes and about the simple and natural ways that they can use to procure for their people, without exception, the true necessities, the true conveniences, and the true superfluities, a well-governed state must have three kinds of common and public goods, which have to do with the three degrees of wealth. A state must have common necessities, common conveniences, and common superfluities.

The second objection that one could raise with regard to the regulations that I propose to (364) facilitate and ensure the highest degree of wealth for everyone, which are superfluities, by ridding the people’s mind of a fear and very common apprehension of the future, is that this fear will always exist, even if my measures were carried out to the letter because people everywhere are so strongly warned of the inconstancy of princes and their councils that they will never believe that their establishments can be long-lasting, and therefore, they will always like to keep their superfluous gr

Besides that, I hope to have so well combined and connected my principles according to the order that the nature of human things shows us that those who have recognized the truth of one will immediately see the necessary consequence of the other. So that when the prince begins by nourishing his mind with a solid knowledge of his true interests, he will see himself placed in a kind of necessity not to be able to follow one without carrying out the other. Far from straying from the true (361) path, he will push things to a more sublime point than you might think.

As regards the grains and other foodstuffs that are necessary for man’s life, they are often used in foreign ways when there are plenty of them, (357) which greatly contributes to this fear that grips minds when the slightest food shortage appears.

I still have a word to say on the use of individuals’ superfluities that goes beyond the usual purpose for which the things exist, which the Prince must prevent. Coined money, for example, is often melted down and used by individuals for dishes and other things foreign to its purpose, which all nations have agreed is to facilitate commerce and the exchange of life’s necessary and convenient things.

In this way, the prince will control the superfluities of each individual; he will be able to dispose of them judiciously to enrich everyone and to ensure that each one has his share in proportion to his needs, that is to say, his necessities and his conveniences. A prince needs only the superfluous of two kinds of goods, namely money and grains, to be master of the rest.

As regards superfluous grains and other necessary things for life, they are hoarded and often kept in a way that is very harmful, according (345) to what I have just said on the topic of necessities. A warehouse in public granaries will also remove the fear of a famine, which makes people hoard grains inopportunely, and the administrators will answer with their lives and their property for always supplying a sufficient quantity to everyone at a reasonable and fixed price.

As for misers who are always numerous among the people and the most difficult to correct because of their excessive mistrust, which seduces them not to believe in God or men, they must at least be beguiled if we cannot completely uproot from their hearts this so unreasonable fear and ensure that it is not so dangerous to public opulence.

Here are the three main motives that prevail among men who seek superfluities: some seek them for an uncertain and remote need, others for a need that seems very close, and the greatest number for a use that depends more on their will than on a fortuitous event. The more the prince can remove from the minds of his people the fear of the difficulties that are commonly encountered in the situations mentioned, the closer they will come to the highest degree of wealth, which are superfluities.

VIII. Superfluities, which are the highest degree (334) of wealth, are not less an object of the attentions of a prince who wants to make his people happy, that is, who wants to get rich, than necessities and conveniences. The will and the desires of all those who make up the state aim for it, and consequently, the prince must help them by wise institutions to achieve this.