Chapter II
Of the Wealth of Princes and their States
We can consider the wealth of Princes separately from that of their States, by regarding them as individuals who, from the good or bad management of their revenues, are either rich or poor. This is what the science, the concerns, and the work of most financiers consists of; it is the source of an art that, through its great detail and particular language, has become so difficult and so muddled that often a lifetime is not enough for going deeper into it and studying it (155) properly. Although basically and for all its mystery, it only contains these three very simple propositions: we receive so much; so much must be spent; so much remains.
Since everything that is mysterious and obscure in the sciences smells a lot like charlatanism, that is, a secret plan to make them more respectable and more lucrative with pompous and majestic appearances that dazzle the ignorant, I would like the science of finances to be purged like many others and reduced to its natural simplicity and discussed in everyday language. Because the only difference between the economy that everyone must know and that of a prince is the difference from small to large, simple (156) to complex. We have often noticed that this mysterious science has produced effects completely contrary to its aims by opposing the general economy that must be observed in a state and produce public and universal opulence. Instead of enriching the prince, to whose interests this science seems to be attached, without having enough regard for those of his people because it continually burdens them with new taxes and does not provide the means to pay them, this science has imperceptibly impoverished and reduced him to the sad necessity of seeking foreign aid to meet his pressing needs, mortgaging his domains, and carving up entire provinces. After which, (157) because he wants to extract the same revenues as before, the rest of the people completely succumb under the burden, and poverty and destitution become widespread.
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