Commonwealth

part the reason why the chief minister of Lausanne left the town, for
the governing bodies of the confederate states would not submit to the
censorship of the elders. One must in that case institute special
censors. The governing body of Geneva has however reserved this
prerogative to bishops, ministers, and elders. They have corporate
rights, and can, in their consistory, censure morals. They have no
jurisdiction, or power of compulsion, or of execution, either themselves
or in the persons of the public officials. But in case of disobedience
they excommunicate. This involves the most serious consequences, for the
excommunicate, after a certain lapse of time, is liable to a criminal
prosecution before the magistrates, by the Inquisitor of the faith.
There is the same system in the Catholic Church, but proceedings are not
there so expeditious. ...
I leave it to wiser heads then mine to decide whether one should divide
temporal censorship in matters touching morals and other matters
remarked on, from ecclesiastical censorship, or to unite the two. But it

---

Page 193
is better to let bishops and ministers exercise both than to deprive
them of such powers altogether, and so deny the commonwealth that which
is most necessary to its welfare. One sees commonwealths that have such
an institution nourish in laws and morals. Licence, usury, excesses of
all sorts are prevented; blasphemers, ruffians, idlers, expelled. One
cannot question that com monwealths that employ these measures of censure
are lasting, and fortified by all the virtues. But once the censure is
neglected, laws, virtue, and religion are despised, as happened in Rome
a short time before the Empire collapsed in ruins. ...
The Revenues [CH APTER II]
... THERE are, generally speaking, seven sources of revenues which
include all the possible sources that one can well imagine. The first is
the public domain, the second the profits of conquests, the third gifts
from friends, the fourth tribute from allies, the fifth the profits of
trading ventures, the sixth customs on exports and imports, and the
seventh taxes on the subject. The first, which is the domain, appears to
be the most defensible and the most reliable of all sources of income.
We read that all ancient kings and legislators who founded commonwealths
or planted colonies, besides public buildings such as roads, temples,
and theatres, assigned certain lands to the commonwealth which belonged
to all in general, and these they called common lands. Other lands were
farmed or leased to private individuals for a term of years, or in
perpetuity, and the rents of these lands were paid into the treasury for
the discharge of the expenses of the commonwealth. We read, for
instance, that Romulus, founder of Rome and the Roman Republic, divided
the whole territory into three parts, assigning one third for the upkeep
of the Church, a second as the public domain, and the rest was divided
among private individuals. ...
In order that princes should not be constrained to burden their subjects
with imposts, or devise excuses for confiscating their possessions, all
kings and people have taken it for a universal and unchallengeable rule
that the public domain should be sacred, inviolable, and inalienable,
either through contract or prescription. Kings therefore even in this
kingdom, issuing letters patent for the recovery of domain, declare that
on their accession to the throne they took an oath never to alienate the

---

Page 194
domain. If it has been alienated, even according to the proper legal
forms, and in perpetuity, it nevertheless remains susceptible of
recovery, so that prescription of one hundred years, which normally
constitutes a title to possession, does not hold for the domain. Edicts,
judgements, and ordinances on the subject are sufficiently familiar in
this kingdom, not only directed against private citizens, but even
against Princes of the Blood who have been deprived of domainal lands
after a hundred years' prescription. This is not a rule peculiar to this
kingdom, but is a custom binding on the Kings of Spain, Poland, and
England, for they also are required to take an oath against alienating
the domain. The rule is also observed in aristocracies and popular
states ... It is therefore never permissible for sovereign princes to
misappropriate the revenues from the domain. They have not the right of
usufruct, but simply of administration, and they must, once the expenses
of maintaining the commonwealth and their own estate are met, reserve
the rest for some public necessity ...
It is to be observed however that the conservation of the domain is much
better secured in a monarchy than in an aristocracy or a popular state.
There the magistrates and collectors of taxes are only concerned to
convert what belongs to the public to their own private advantage, and
each thinks only either of gratifying his friends, or of winning popular
favour at the public expense. ...
The second means of replenishing the treasury is by the profits of
foreign conquests ... When William the Conqueror subjugated the realm of
England, he declared the whole country in general, and the estates of
each particular person forfeit to him by the conventions of war, and he
treated the English simply as his tenants. The Romans were more
civilized and farseeing in this respect, for they despatched colonists
for whose benefit a proportion only of the land was confiscated. In this
way they got rid of the indigent, disorderly, and idle elements among
their own people, and at the same time planted settlements among the
conquered people. Subsequent intermarriage bred mutual trust, so that
the conquered came to submit to Rome willingly. The world was thus
populated with colonies of Romans to the enhancing of their reputation
for justice, wisdom, and power. Nowadays most victorious princes
establish garrisons of professional soldiers, who think only of

---

Page 195
pillaging and so exasperate the subject population into revolt. If Roman
examples had been followed when the French conquered Naples and Milan,
these cities would still be obeying our kings. ...
The third means of increasing the revenues is by gifts, furnished by
friends or subjects. There is not much to be said about this, for it is
not a certain source of income. Few princes offer such gifts, and still
fewer receive them without returning some equivalent... As to gifts
offered by subjects, such as the R omans called oblations, one very
seldom hears of them these days, for so-called free gifts are for the
most part compulsive. ...
The fourth resource is the pension received from an ally. These are paid
in time of peace as well as war to secure defence or protection against
enemies, or aid and assistance of any sort at need, according to the
terms of the treaty ... By the terms of the treaties of alliance between
the King of France and the Swiss, the king gave to each Canton a pension
of one thousand livres to secure peace with them, and a pension of two
thousand livres for their active co-operation, besides extraordinary
payments. He also undertook to pay the expenses in war, and the salaries
of those who entered his household, or acted as his bodyguard. By these
terms it was clear that the Sw iss were the king's pensioners. ...
The fifth expedient is for the prince or the signory to engage in
commerce ... Everyone knows how for the last century, ever since the
discovery of the gold mines and other riches of Guinea, and of the
spices of Calicut and the East twelve years later, the Kings of Portugal
have engaged in trade with such success that they have made themselves
masters of the best harbours of Africa, occupied the island of Ormuz in
the teeth of the opposition of the Shah of Persia, and subjected a great