§ 1. I have taught that resources are necessary to the state. They are gathered honorably either with inconvenience to the citizens, or without detriment to them, or, finally, with advantage to them. I treat the last method, and shall present certain other means, each of them indeed not of great consequence by itself, but several together powerful and abundant.
§ 2. The purchase of slaves and their lawful use tempered by humanity contributes greatly to gathering resources. Paul exhorts slaves to obey their masters, “not serving to the eye.” Nor is it contrary to Christian gentleness to use the labor of slaves. Abraham certainly had very many slaves, as did other holy men, for whose slaves that subjection was even more useful than dangerous liberty. Indeed, the laws of Moses concerning servitudes are most equitable, Exodus 21:2 and the following verses, and Leviticus 25:6, 42, and 44. For if they can lawfully be killed, they can therefore also be reduced to servitude.
Next, the civil laws and the perpetual practice of Christians attest this, nor does Paul command Onesimus to be manumitted, but restores him to Philemon. For servitude is nothing other than to be in another’s power, to be governed by his counsel and will, to furnish labor to him, and to possess nothing of one’s own unless the master concedes it. Servitude, however, ought to arise from a just cause and to be equitable and mild, according to that maxim:
What you do not wish to be done to yourself, do not do to another.
This is useful in common. For since many persons are by nature, through neglect of instruction, or by the efficacy of seduction wicked and stubborn in vices, it is plainly useful for those who cannot bear liberty to serve in servitude. How many myriads of vagabonds and wanderers burden the state and betray it when there is an opportunity? Would it not have been better for them to serve moderate masters, be exercised by labors, gather a private fund, and await manumission by the praetor’s rod? If they are not well-behaved, let them be ruled by δεσποτικῷ command; if they are prudent and moderate, like Abraham’s servant, let them acquire liberty. For Christian laws long ago abolished that harsh and cruel servitude of the ancients, who usurped the right of life and death over the wretched, cast the sick or old out of the house, and sold them to the beasts. It is therefore a just and lawful means, and it burdens no one in the state except him who deservedly is a slave; indeed, it also strikes fear into enemies, while they flee wars through fear of servitude.
Furthermore, the advantages which arise from it are several.
1. Great works can be completed publicly and privately with the greatest speed. For what would Clodius not do with his laborers, or Crassus the Rich with five hundred workmen? The cause is that they are subject to power: they can be pressed, compelled, and flogged, although in this matter account must be taken of justice and clemency. Nor were cities and great substructures formerly made in any other way than by servile hands. Thus the children of Israel built Pithom and Rameses for Pharaoh, cities of tabernacles. Those who are free come and go at their pleasure, drink, and neglect their work.
2. They accomplish everything at lesser expense. Hired labors are costly, undertake the work more slowly, and live more lavishly. Therefore one who uses slaves gains half the price. He pays them no wages and feeds them more cheaply than free men.
3. In mines, trenches, aqueducts, laying walls, cutting wood, and cultivating fields, even private persons can conveniently accomplish many things through slaves; and it is expedient for the prince to have public slaves, or for there to be certain rich men who hire out the labor of slaves to private persons.
4. Pharaoh teaches us that very many advantages are attained from this, since after so many plagues he still preferred the useful to the honorable: “Why have we released Israel, so that it should not serve us?” With what great savagery do the Turks press on, so that they may carry off Christian captives? Why do we not in turn use their servitude? I always speak of just and mild servitudes. Why should it not be lawful or advantageous for us, when we see the Italians and Spaniards gather riches from slaves?
5. Past ages have taught how many slaves were talented and suited to great arts, to governing the state, in necessity to military service. Manlius, Antiochus, Taberius, Eros, and others were learned. Others were trained in every kind of craft; indeed, they can also be instructed so that they may be useful to their masters and sold at a higher price.
§ 3. The cultivation of all mechanical arts which are necessary or useful. The state will accomplish this if it renders craftsmen honored and confers privileges, and that in imitation of the ancient laws. For thus Constantine to Maximus, Code 10, title 64:
We command that craftsmen of the arts comprised in the list appended below, residing throughout the individual cities, be free from all public duties, since leisure must be afforded for learning the arts, so that they may desire all the more both to become more skilled themselves and to instruct their sons.
From the Notitia, however, he enumerates them thus: architects, physicians, painters, makers of statues, marble-workers, makers of couches or chests, locksmiths, chariot-makers or stone-squarers, whom they call by the Greek term πῆκτας; masons, that is, builders; wood-carvers, mosaic-workers, gilders, white-metal workers, whom the Greeks call κοιλάτα; silversmiths, embroiderers, openwork craftsmen, braziers, founders, seal-makers, workers in iron, makers of armlets, makers of beams, and levelers; potters, who in Greek are called κεραμεῖς; goldsmiths, glass-workers, plumbers, mirror-makers, ivory-workers, furriers, fullers, wagon-makers, sculptors, plasterers, coiners, makers of three-horse chariots, makers of light carriages, and beaters of leaf, that is, πεταλουργοί.
Constantius and Constans confirm the same immunities under the same title:
By our pronouncement we summon mechanics, geometers, and architects, who preserve the divisions and sections of all parts and bind those making works to measures and rules, and those who reveal the conduits of waters and the methods discovered by skillful leveling, to an equal zeal for teaching and learning. Accordingly, let them enjoy immunities and receive persons to be taught, those who are capable of teaching.
Aristotle indeed excludes them from the state, but unjustly, since they possess practice and prudence and have the means necessary for life. For today their condition is such that they do not break their bodies by labors but strengthen them, at least those guilds of craftsmen that are most honorable in cities; and this has been instituted according to the standard of the ancients and of the sacred state. For in the Israelite state God himself honored craftsmen, Exodus 31:
Behold, I have called by name Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge in every work, to devise whatever can be skillfully made from gold, silver, bronze, marble, gems, and different kinds of wood. And I have given him as companion Oholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And in the heart of every learned man I have placed wisdom, so that they may make all things which I have commanded you: the tabernacle of the covenant and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat which is over it, and all the vessels of the tabernacle, the table and its vessels, the most pure lampstand with its vessels, and the altars of incense and holocaust, and all their vessels, the laver with its base, the sacred vestments for the ministry of Aaron the priest and his sons, and so forth.
Once this foundation of the arts had been laid, the dignity of craftsmen was always great, as also were their resources. This very time of calamities shows it, for when the Babylonian carried away the princes, the strong men, and the craftsmen with King Jehoiachin, he left only the poor, 2 Kings 24:14:
And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the strong men of the army, ten thousand into captivity, and every craftsman and smith; and nothing was left except the poor of the people of the land. He also carried Jehoiachin away to Babylon; and he led the king’s mother and the king’s wives, his eunuchs, and the judges of the land into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. And all the robust men, seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths, one thousand, all strong men and warriors; the king of Babylon led them captive to Babylon. And he appointed Mattaniah, his uncle, in his place, and imposed upon him the name Zedekiah.
Smiths and craftsmen, therefore, were among the rich and the princes, to such an extent that he is said to have carried away all Jerusalem because he led the principal men into captivity. The Hebrews call a smith המסגר, and the Septuagint συγκλείοντας; some call him a doorkeeper, others a guardian, others one who fastens swords, and others men skilled in laying out a camp. The same things are found in Jeremiah 24:1 and 29:2. But I prefer that a skillful craftsman be called this, one who makes מסגרות, artful joints of buildings, columns, and instruments. Thus some interpret it as a metalworker. Those, however, who call them great or highly esteemed, as Rabbi David in the Book of Roots, although they seem to derive it from סגור, which is refined, pure gold, or from מרוק, which is melted gold, nevertheless take it in the same way; for such men were held at a great price. Therefore Rabbi David also calls them wise men and counselors in his commentary; nor is this remarkable, for God calls Bezalel such. What we see done here, Isaiah had already foretold: that God would “take away the wise man from among the architects,” chapter 3, verse 3. Solomon also esteemed these things, 1 Kings 7:14:
King Solomon also sent and brought Hiram from Tyre, the son of a widowed woman of the tribe of Naphtali, whose father was a Tyrian, a worker in bronze, full of wisdom, understanding, and learning, to make every work of bronze.
The descendants of Othniel, a most noble and brave man, through his son Seraiah and grandson Joab, were craftsmen. For “he was the father of the Valley of Craftsmen, for craftsmen were there,” 1 Chronicles 4:14, where the Hebrew has simply כי חרשים היו, and the Septuagint ὅτι τέκτονες ἦσαν, “because craftsmen were there.” Craftsmen also build Jerusalem, Isaiah 2:3, 33. Nor were they less esteemed at Rome, for they were both admitted to magistracy and, after the faction of the patricians had been overcome, obtained the right of citizenship, which was the highest right. Romulus distributed the citizens into curiae or brotherhoods; Numa Pompilius, as Plutarch says, in order to remove the hateful distinction of nations, instituted a division of arts and associations and colleges of craftsmen and architects.
Craftsmen bring the greatest supports to the state, for they attract merchants, flee idleness, import riches, and are useful in war.
If their industry is honored, they will flourish much more. For since there are economical methods of conducting affairs which prevail in the arts, they will assist the state with less care and labor.
§ 4. The first thing, therefore, is that the arts be honored; the second, which follows from this, is that certain arts be regarded as so honorable that even the rich and nobles practice them. Plato says that the arts are deserted for two causes: riches and excessive poverty; for the rich dissolve in idleness and luxury, while the poor lack instruments and material.
Nor will arts be lacking, provided the prince wills it. In the East the pastoral life was considered most honorable and royal; agriculture and the planting of groves and vines were held in great esteem. Now equestrian exercise and hunting almost entirely occupy the nobility. Other pursuits, however, can also be added, especially those which are liberal, such as painting, sculpture, architecture, the polishing of muskets, bows, axes, and swords, and everything pertaining to distillations of medicinal waters and the treatment of herbs. For if so many labors are expended upon alchemy with fruitless endeavor, why should they not rather be expended upon useful things with certain outcome? Finally, whatever pertains to the polishing of gems, gold, and silver befits the wealthy. I spoke above about the liberal arts.
As for the poor and those of middling means who cannot live from their annual revenues, I repeat the law which I stated elsewhere: all must be examined as to the art by which they seek their livelihood; no place must be given to idleness. Boys must immediately be applied to lighter crafts, so that no one is idle; vagabonds must be restrained; those, however, who lack not the ability but the will to labor must be compelled to work. If this is done, the number of the poor will be ten times smaller. Some of them, although weak, will nevertheless be able to perform certain sedentary occupations. The rest, who are truly poor, will be maintained by alms without difficulty. And what was formerly said to the Israelite people will be capable of observance: “There shall be no beggar among you.” Work, however, will never be lacking if the prince cultivates fields and establishes newly broken lands. The things that are done teach what can be done. The Belgians engage in wool-working and weave woolen and linen cloths and tapestries, with which they clothe Germany, Gaul, Spain, Africa, Asia, and both Indies. Why do the princes of Germany not imitate both this and other things? From here they buy up wool, carry it away, and bring it back, and double the expenses of customs and carriage. This, finally, is a great disadvantage in a state: because things made by art are bought from foreigners, everything is sold at a higher price and the city is drained.
Next, an abundance of craftsmen easily devises marvelous things, such as Curio’s invention when he made a suspended theater. Pliny, Book Thirty-six, chapter 15:
He made two very spacious theaters next to one another out of wood, each suspended upon the revolving balance of hinges. In both of them, after a spectacle of games had been exhibited before midday while they were turned away from one another, lest their stages disturb each other, they were suddenly revolved so that they stood opposite; afterward, while the panels were now descending and the corners were coming together, he made an amphitheater and exhibited spectacles of gladiators, carrying around the Roman people itself, bound by a still greater gladiatorial contract. For what should one first marvel at in this affair: the inventor or the invention? The craftsman or the author? That anyone dared to devise this, or to undertake it? To obey, or to command? Above everything will be the madness of the people: that they dared to sit upon so untrustworthy and unstable a seat. Behold, here is that conqueror of lands and master of the whole world, who distributes nations and kingdoms, sends laws to foreign peoples, a certain portion of the immortal gods for the human race, hanging upon a machine and applauding at his own danger. What worthlessness of lives is this! Or what complaint about Cannae! How great a calamity could have occurred!
Lead these men into camps if a town must be defended by machines: what will they not accomplish? Let their talents exert themselves upon useful things.
Contempt for the mechanical arts arose from the pride of the Greek philosophers and orators. And now also they are regarded by many as contemptible and sordid, although they were the first occupations of the human race after agriculture. The industry of the Indians pleases me more. They permitted individuals to practice individual arts, but permitted several to philosophers in honor of wisdom. From this we gather that Indian philosophy was not a follower of idle subtleties, but wisdom taking counsel for common and civil life.
§ 5. The method of collecting money in necessity which Sabellicus, Books Six and Seven, says the Venetians followed was also honorable and useful. For they publicly proclaimed that from those who had assisted the state with money, thirty would be chosen into the number of senators and that this dignity, once ratified, would remain for their descendants; to the rest, when the war was ended, five thousand coins apiece would be distributed each year. The wealthy gave in competition, and the treasury increased through rivalry. This was done prudently by the state, and there is no public rivalry between the old and new families. Why should kings not imitate it? Certainly the king of Spain, a few years ago, while ennobling some of the richest Italians, obtained great subsidies for wars. The honor of nobility, however, must be conferred upon men of resources, ability, and industry, lest, if they fall back into want, they be a reproach to the order. No injury is inflicted here upon the state or upon private persons. But if it is objected that nobility ought to be a matter only of virtue, the reply is easy: those who assist their country with money are not inferior to others who boast of smoke-darkened ancestral images; for account is taken not of money alone but also of virtue. We learn that those men are of great spirit even from this: that they value great sums of money less than a moderate honor. I would recommend this to those princes to whom the nobility is subject and where it also conducts commerce. But if the old nobility becomes cheapened by the multitude of new men, that is a lesser evil, since it can recover dignity through virtue. This was also done in Gaul, and men purchased immunity with a great sum. It was also done formerly, when the right of Roman citizenship was given or sold to entire nations: an immense increase for so great an empire. Acts 22:28: ἐγὼ πολλῷ κεφαλαίῳ ταύτην τὴν πολιτείαν ἐκτησάμην. “I obtained that citizenship with a great sum.” If many thousands were given citizenship, but for a great sum, there is no doubt how much money many thousands of great sums made. Thus the prince will also be able, for some moderate sum of money, to grant the right of citizenship and other things which are honorable, yet do not prejudice the advantages or liberty of others.
Not unlike this is what the Byzantines did in necessity. For since there was a law that no one should enjoy the right of citizenship unless born of two citizen parents, they proclaimed that if anyone contributed thirty pounds to the state, although born of only one citizen parent, he would be regarded as a citizen with the same right as the man who possessed citizenship upon the best terms.
§ 6. Tamerlane’s device was one of barbarous cunning. He sent merchants with costly furs into a city which he intended to besiege, and commanded them to sell them at an easy price so that they would be bought; then, when he had occupied the city, he recovered the furs, which could not conveniently be concealed. An honorable method: for thus he maintained his army from the enemy’s money and afterward recovered the merchandise to be sold to others. Thus Hayton the Armenian.
§ 7. Edward IV, king of Britain, asked his friends voluntarily to contribute money to him for military expenses, saying that he would measure his goodwill from the deed of each; wherefore the contribution itself was named “benevolence.” Henry VII imitated the same thing. Polydore, Books 26 and 27. If great necessity presses, it is a proper method; but care must be taken that he in turn benefits them. Otherwise nothing is harsher than the prince’s private entreaties among friends; for if they refuse or give sparingly, they think ruin has been prepared for them. If anyone either is unwilling or unable to give, he becomes the prince’s enemy because the prince judges that he has been gravely offended by him.
§ 8. Antoninus the Philosopher, in order to obtain money, publicly sold all his vessels of gold, silver, murrine, and crystal, his gems—in a word, all his household furnishing—and his wife’s ornaments, so that he might raise money. Not unlike this was the act of the Ephesians, who, as Aristotle relates in Economics 2, when they were in need of money, enacted by law that women should not wear gold, and then that they should lend it to the city. Some consider these things sordid; I judge it magnificent, for to despise external adornment is royal. Then the subjects are spared, and the spirits of the nobles and powerful are inflamed to assist the state. For who will drink from a rich jeweled vessel if he sees the prince’s earthenware furnishing?
The matter turned out less in accordance with expectation for the Venetians when they wished to extort money from the citizens. For they proclaimed that whatever wrought gold or silver there was should be carried to the two commissioners so that coins might be struck; that those who brought it would receive the profits of a tenth part; and that the goods of those who did not bring it would be sold. But when they delayed, they were compelled by the seizure of pledges and by prisons. This was done in the war against Julius II. Bembo, Books Seven and Ten of the History of Venice. This indeed would have been less harsh if there was good faith, for a great profit was promised, and they could not refuse the state if it could furnish sufficient security. But they, cursing the war and the causes of the war and holding the Senate’s good faith suspect, clung to their property. Nevertheless, the prince can use this method and must not be reckoned among the hateful if provision is made concerning the principal and the profit. For it does not befit anyone to be so pleased with himself that, while the prince is in danger, he wishes to drink only from gold, especially when it is lawful to expect profit from the benefit.