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 VII.  It is not enough for a prince who wants to govern his people well, that is to get rich, to focus all his attention on making sure that everyone has necessities, and their bodies are preserved and properly fed, and their minds do not lack the necessary education[^1] so that their bodies can act for the good of the state. He must also be persuaded that the state’s wealth cannot be limited to necessities since the wealth of each individual only begins with them, but it must advance to conveniences and superfluities; and for the same reasons that the prince endeavors to procure necessities for his people, the state’s interests will oblige him to seek (317) all possible means so that, after getting necessities, everyone has their proportional share of the true conveniences.

The people submit their will to that of the prince and the government in the hope of more easily satisfying their desire to live comfortably and pleasantly, and this is one of the conditions under which they recognize sovereign power. It is therefore necessary that the prince help them, employ his authority therein and endeavor to ensure that no one is excluded from the true pleasures and conveniences of life. As soon as everyone’s mind is nourished by this truth that I have just established and the natural order shows us—that it is impossible to establish real wealth without a (318) proportional contribution to the needs of others—everyone will understand at the same time that man is not made to be without effort[^2] and without anything to do, and that the pleasures and conveniences we seek by getting rich must be proportional to this contribution that we owe to others, and that according to the natural order, the effort and the work must be equally distributed among men so that their wealth is common and universal. Everything that a prince will want to do to procure the true conveniences for his people must be founded on this principle, and the more his establishments approach this proportion and this balance, the closer the state’s wealth will be to its point of perfection. (319)