His ministers, if they are good people, work attentively to eliminate the obstacles that prevent public opulence as soon as they know about them, because it is very often the lack of awareness and attention rather than of good will on their part when the fortune of the state loses ground rather than advances. I may be told that they know of them,[^1] but that it is morally (164) impossible to push things to this degree of perfection that I am proposing and that, we can describe the idea of a rich state all we want, there is no way to reach it in spite of all the attention we give. To justify my plan in advance, against this objection, I will say that I challenge anyone[^2] to show me a state in the world that has reached just the first degree of perfection in its wealth, which are necessities: namely, one where all the people without distinction enjoy them and where there are no poor who die of hunger while others die of repletion from having consumed too much food. Here is, for a start, a great defect in the beginning of a state’s wealth that is found, however, (165) almost everywhere, and, at the same time, proof that it would be wrong to fear that we wanted to take things too far and to a point of[^3] perfection that no state can ever reach. Because I will observe later that, in a State, there is nothing easier than preventing anyone from dying of hunger and at least having everyone enjoy necessities: it is the fault of those who govern as well as that of the people when these problems exist.
There are also similar flaws, in greater number, with regard to the second and third degrees of wealth in every state in the world. We often seek with infinite troubles in foreign countries things that we could very easily and quite comfortably make (166) in our province. Some die from overwork while others mope in idleness, which is directly contrary to the second degree of a state’s wealth, which are conveniences. In all the states in the world, superfluous food that is necessary for human life is given to foreigners for trinkets, gold, silver, and other useless merchandise, or it is fed to dogs and livestock while a large number of citizens go without or do not enjoy a sufficient portion to preserve and perfect their bodies, although preserving the lives of citizens is the first and most noble part of a state’s wealth. (167) These are faults that are found everywhere and, nevertheless, are not absolutely impossible to correct. At least a good citizen, a good minister, and a good prince must use all their intelligence to discover ways that facilitate correcting such essential flaws and never let themselves be sidetracked by those who regard as impossible and a dangerous novelty anything that must cure them of a disease to which they think they are already accustomed. This is why, without delaying any longer and without worrying if one wants to regard my ideas as chimeras, I will propose my system.
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