ChapterFourBookOne109

Of the different ways individuals use to get rich and how the prince must unite them into one

I will gather here all that I have said on this subject at different times in the preceding chapters. Since there is only one truth everywhere, there is only one true and good way to get rich, as I demonstrated in chapter one. This way is to contribute in a fair proportion to the needs of others. Although this principle is indisputable in theory, it would nevertheless encounter (415) insurmountable difficulties in a state if the prince or the whole society did not want to get involved, but wanted to leave each individual to be arbiter and enforcer of this natural law according to his conscience. Many would make mistakes; many would be deceived. Pride, prejudices and passions seduce men everyday and prevent them from following what common sense itself dictates to them and what their true interests require. There are some who, in spite of being full of good will, lack the wisdom to discern the true from the false. It is therefore absolutely necessary, for the good of the state as well as for that of each individual, that the prince (416) determine, explain, and support this proportion that must be kept in the acquisition of wealth and that he endeavor to bring it to the height of perfection in order to enrich everyone.

This will not be done by a number of laws alone —there are already enough of them, which everyone either interprets according to his views or seeks to evade in indirect ways— but rather by establishments and arrangements from which it is impossible to stray and which give everyone no choice but to do things this way. Let a prince forbid, for example, by a law as severe as can be imagined, anyone from hiding and keeping his money. A miser will bury it and get hanged (417) near his treasure rather than give it up. But let him propose an advantageous use for it that is so sure that mistrust itself can find nothing to complain about, he will control the treasure of the very one who adores it like a god. This is why the ancients very wisely said that a state could only be happy insofar as good morals, customs, and establishments prevail over good laws. Of what use would it be to a prince to make a law that grains should only ever be sold at the certain price? All his authority and all his strength would not be able to execute and maintain such a law, although it is very wise and very excellent for the good of the state. But when, (418) grains are always bought and sold at the same price in the public warehouses, everyone will do the same. What would be the outcome of placing a certain price[^1] on merchandise by a law in order to prevent merchants from making excessive profits and ruining trade? It would be even worse than fixing the price of grain. But by doing nearly the same as with grains, in the way I have just said, it will be easily overcome, without violence and without executions. A state must therefore think of such establishments rather than of laws, which often become useless, in order to attain this proportion that sustains and increases its wealth and to reunite (419) the different ways of getting rich that individuals use, which are very often contrary and pernicious to each other, into a single one.