He can do this by strictly forbidding anyone to take money abroad other than public persons, who are authorized and accredited by the prince and who are involved in general trade with foreigners; by forbidding ministers, under penalty of confiscation and (398) cassation, to have funds abroad; by establishing a depository or public fund where everyone can take his money in complete security, even without ever being subject to any fine or confiscation, except for state crimes and lèse-majesté; by procuring good uses for the funds held in the public depository and ensuring a reasonable return to the owners; by reducing the amount of land that individuals may have in their possession to a proportion that can maintain a large family; by forcing those who have more to get rid of it and sell it to others who can settle down there; by forbidding the bourgeois to get involved in agriculture (399) and farmers to exercise any trade; and by allowing even less ministers, secular officers, and ecclesiastics to practice agriculture or any other profession—they must only attend to their responsibilities, except for using their wealth in the public depository that the prince will establish.
As for the nobility’s interests, it would also be appropriate if they did not have their estates cultivated by servants, but sold ownership rights[^1] to farmers, reserving some seigniorial rights. It will be a great benefit to the nobility as well as to the prince when their estates are more populated, which will also happen with the other establishments that I have just mentioned.
The more the prince separates the professions, (400) the less he will allow anyone to exercise two of them; the more he makes it impossible for everyone to be able to do without each other, the more the commerce of life will increase and flourish, the more people will find work, and the more they will be encouraged to settle down and multiply. And when, because of a proportion of values that the prince will always support, some will no longer be able to crush others, and goods will be distributed and will spread more equally. There will no longer be a way to acquire wealth that is detrimental to public opulence, and this will be the real way to enrich everyone, that is to say, to preserve and to animate this natural desire to settle down and to multiply. (401)
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