16
Of
Liberality and Niggardliness
Beginning
now with the first qualities above named, I say that it would be well to
be considered liberal; nevertheless liberality such as the world
understands it will injure you, because if used virtuously and in the
proper way, it will not be known, and you will incur the disgrace of the
contrary vice. But one who wishes to obtain the reputation of liberality
among men, must not omit every kind of sumptuous display, and to such an
extent that a prince of this character will consume by such means all his
resources, and will be at last compelled, if he wishes to maintain his
name for libdiq, to impose heavy taxes an his people, become extortion
ate, and do evergthing possible to obtain money. This will make his
subjects begin to hate him, and he will be little esteemed being poor, so
that having by this liberaliq injured many and benefited but few, he will
feel the first little disturbance and be endangered by every peril. If he
recognises this and wishes to change his system, he incurs at once the
charge of niggardliness.
A
prince, therefore, not being able to exercise this virtue of liberality
without risk if it be known, must not, if he be prudent, object to be
called miserly. In course of time he will be thought more liberal, when it
is seen that by his parsimony his revenue is sufficient, that he can
defend himself against those who make war on him, and undertake
enterprises without burdening his people, so that he is really liberal to
all those from whom he does not take, who are infinite in number, and
niggardly to all to whom he does not give, who are few. In our times we
have seen nothing great done except by those who have been esteemed
niggardly; the others have all been ruined. Pope Julius II, although he
had made use of a reputation for liberality in order to attain the papacy,
did not seek to retain it afterwards, so that he might be able to wage
war. The present King of France has carried on so many wars without
imposing an extraordinary tax, because his extra expenses were covered by
the parsimony he had so long practiced. The present King of Spain, if he
had been thought liberal, would not have engaged in and been successful in
so many enterprises.
For these reasons a
prince must care little for the reputation of being a miser, if he wishes
to avoid robbing his subjects, if he wishes to be able to defend himself,
to avoid becoming poor and contemptible, and not to be forced to become
rapacious; this niggardliness is one of those vices which enable him to
reign. If it is said that Caesar attained the empire through liberality,
and that many others have reached the highest positions through being
liberal or being thought so, I would reply that you are either a prince
already or else on the way to become one. In the first case, this
liberality is harmful; in the second, it is certainly necessary to be
considered liberal. Caesar was one of those who wished to attain the
mastery over Rome, but if after attaining it he had lived and had not
moderated his expenses, he would have destroyed that empire. And should
any one reply that there have been many princes, who have done great
things with their armies, who have been thought extremely liberal, I would
answer by saying that the prince may either spend his own wealth and that
of his subjects or the wealth of others. In the first case he must be
sparing, but for the rest he must not neglect to be very liberal. The
liberality is very necessary to a prince who marches with his armies, and
lives by plunder, sack and ransom, and is dealing with the wealth of
others, for without it he would not be followed by his soldiers. And you
may be very generous indeed with what is not the property of yourself or
your subjects, as were Cyrus, Caesar, and Alexander; for spending the
wealth of others will not diminish your reputation, but increase it, only
spending your own resources will injure you. There is nothing which
destroys itself so much as liberality, for by using it you lose the power
of using it, and become either poor and despicable, or, to escape poverty,
rapacious and hated. And of all things that a prince must guard against,
the most important are being despicable or hated, and liberality will lead
you to one or the other of these conditions. It is, therefore, wiser to
have the name of a miser, which produces disgrace without hatred, than to
incur of necessity the name of being rapacious, which produces both
disgrace and hatred.
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