 the farther off he is removed from me, the better pleased am I. The
generality of mankind also are of my way of thinking, and have unanimously
created one king, whose election at once diminishes the number of tyrants, and
puts tyranny at the greatest distance from the greatest number of people. Now
the great who were tyrants themselves before the election of one tyrant, are
naturally averse to a power raised over them, and whose weight must ever lean
heaviest on the subordinate orders. It is the interest of the great, therefore,
to diminish kingly power as much as possible; because whatever they take from
that is naturally restored to themselves; and all they have to do in the state,
is to undermine the single tyrant, by which they resume their primæval
authority. Now, the state may be so circumstanced, or its laws may be so
disposed, or its men of opulence so minded, as all to conspire in carrying on
this business of undermining monarchy. For, in the first place, if the
circumstances of our state be such, as to favour the accumulation of wealth, and
make the opulent still more rich, this will encrease their ambition. An
accumulation of wealth, however, must necessarily be the consequence, when as at
present more riches flow in from external commerce, than arise from internal
industry: for external commerce can only be managed to advantage by the rich,
and they have also at the same time all the emoluments arising from internal
industry: so that the rich, with us, have two sources of wealth, whereas the
poor have but one. For this reason, wealth in all commercial states is found to
accumulate, and all such have hitherto in time become aristocratical. Again, the
very laws also of this country may contribute to the accumulation of wealth; as
when by their means the natural ties that bind the rich and poor together are
broken, and it is ordained that the rich shall only marry with the rich; or when
the learned are held unqualified to serve their country as counsellors merely
from a defect of opulence, and wealth is thus made the object of a wise man's
ambition; by these means I say, and such means as these, riches will accumulate.
Now the possessor of accumulated wealth, when furnished with the necessaries and
pleasures of life, has no other method to employ the superfluity of his fortune
but in purchasing power. That is, differently speaking, in making dependants, by
purchasing the liberty of the needy or the venal, of men who are willing to bear
the mortification of contiguous tyranny for bread.
