For example, a house’s worth is only in proportion to the number of those who live or want (184) to live in it, the furniture’s, in proportion to the number of those who want to use it, and the field's, vineyard’s, and garden's only insofar as there are many who eat and drink. Even money, which is commonly made a God, is only worth as much as the number of those who use it; one écu or one gold louis that one hundred thousand people seek or that must circulate through as many hands is without question half as much again[^1] more precious than the one that is only sought by fifty thousand: because the latter number is unable to produce as many necessary and agreeable things for human life as when it is doubled. Moreover, those who remain after the plague are hardly affected by the increase in the number of goods that the dead (185) have left them because their old value has decreased by half. On the contrary and taking things properly, it is obvious that having lost half of the contributors[^2] to their wealth, they live less comfortably and less agreeably by half. All we have to do is examine the state of any such city where the plague has just ended; we will find that the decrease in the value of goods follows the proportion of the number of inhabitants taken by the contagion and that as outsiders come to settle there, all the goods regain their old value: they become richer and live more comfortably and more agreeably.
As for what concerns the Prince’s revenues in particular, it is natural that they decrease (186) in proportion to the general decrease in the state’s wealth, and that the plague takes away half of it from him by taking away half of his people: this is why we view the plague as one of the greatest and most terrible curses that can befall a state. This is true as much for those who remain with respect to the decrease of their wealth as for those who die from it. A Prince cannot take enough precautions against this enemy of the wealth of his State and against everything that brings mortality into it. Besides what is usually done concerning this, one should be even more cautious, and above all, publicly promise considerable rewards to those who (187) would invent ways and remedies to protect and to defend oneself against this cruel enemy. A Prince should have every proposed remedy against the plague and other illnesses examined very closely and not stop at what doctors who are interested in public misfortunes say. In Paris, I remember having heard of a Monsieur de Villard[^3] who said that he would answer with all his wealth for the life of a man with the plague who wanted to use his remedy[^4] and that he would prove it. A Prince must not, for example, disregard such offers, which cost nothing to examine.
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