Articles de cette rubrique

• XIII.1 On the revenues of the state

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  The revenues of the state are a portion of what each citizen gives of his own in order to have security for the rest, or to enjoy it agreeably.
  In order to set Revenues properly, attention must be paid both to the necessities of the state and the necessities of the citizens. One must not take (…)

• XIII.2 That it is ill reasoning to say that a large sum of tributes is good in itself

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  We have seen in certain monarchies that small countries exempt from tributes were as miserable as places all around them which were overburdened by tributes. The principal reason for this is that the small, surrounded state can have scarcely any industry, any arts or manufacturing, because in (…)

• XIII.3 On tributes in countries where part of the people are slaves to the land

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  A system of villeinage sometimes follows a conquest. In this case the slave who farms must be the master’s sharecropper. Only a society of loss or gain can reconcile those who are destined to work and those who are destined to benefit.

• XIII.4 On a republic in such a situation

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  When a republic has reduced a nation to tilling land for it, the citizen ought not to be allowed to increase the slave’s tribute. It was not permitted in Lacedæmon ; they thought the Helots would till the land better when they knew that their servitude would not increase [1] ; they believed the (…)

• XIII.5 On a monarchy in the same situation

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  When in a monarchy the nobility has the land tilled for its benefit by the conquered people, again the debt must not be subject to increase. Moreover, it is good for the prince content himself with his domain and military service. But if he wishes to levy tributes in specie on the slaves of his (…)

• XIII.6 On a despotic state in the same situation

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  What I have just said is even more indispensable in the despotic state. The lord who may at any moment be dispossessed of his lands and his slaves is not so determined to preserve them.
  Peter I, intending to take over Germany and levy his tributes in specie, made a very wise rule that is still (…)

• XIII.7 On tributes in countries where villeinage is not established

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  When all individuals in a state are citizens, and each one possesses by his domain what the prince possesses by his empire, there can be taxes on persons, on lands, or on merchandise, on two of these, or on all three.
  For the tax on persons, the unjust proportion would be one that strictly (…)

• XIII.8 How the illusion is maintained

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  In order for the price of the item and the duty on it to be conflated in the mind of the payer, there must be some relationship between the value of the merchandise and the tax, and excessive duty must not be imposed on a staple of little value. There are countries where the duty exceeds the (…)

• XIII.9 On a bad sort of taxation

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  We shall mention in passing a tax instituted in several states on the various articles of civil contracts. Holding off the tax collector requires considerable knowledge, these things being subject to subtle discussions. Then the tax collector, the interpreter of the prince’s statutes, exerts an (…)

• XIII.10 That the amount of tributes depends on the nature of the government

  6 septembre 2018, par Stewart

  Tributes should be very light under a despotic government. Otherwise, who would take the trouble to cultivate the land ? And furthermore, how could anyone pay large tributes under a government that adds nothing to what the subject has given ?
  In the surprising power of the prince and the (…)