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. When he has a thorough knowledge of the basis of his wealth, which is that of his people, and that it can only be reached by a single path which is simple and natural, he will inevitably prefer it to any other of which he will immediately know the danger. The marvelous effects that first appear before him will encourage him more to never abandon the good course of action. When you begin with a deep knowledge of the goodness of the things you use and how to use them, it is as unnatural to abuse them as it is to kill yourself with your own sword or to set your own house on fire. Then ministers, no matter how unfaithful and (362) how treacherous they may be, will no longer be able to deceive the master. They will even get something out of this fortunate situation, and it may be better than the one that leads to the ruin of the state’s wealth.
This is why I exhort and implore all those who educate young princes to take care to nourish their minds with this point that is essential for their temporal happiness, by making them know as clear as day the absolute necessity of only seeking their wealth in that of their people, and of embracing all the imaginable ways to facilitate it, and of never being seduced by the false principles of certain financiers who, in order to extract ill-conceived taxes from the (363) people, destroy a prodigious quantity of goods, and of always being on their guard when they propose projects to them that only aim to fill the coffers with money, which is the least of a prince’s wealth. It will be good to explain to a young prince the three professions that mainly establish the state’s opulence and how they must be kept in continual harmony so that one sustains the other instead of crushing and ruining each other, which is what often happens when the prince lets everyone act according to their whims and their unregulated passions.
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