§ IX
Know Your Flock
A king must know the present state of his people, including their numbers and composition, as easily as a shepherd knows his flock.
It isn't enough to know the past; he must know the present. Do you know how many people make up your nation—how many men, how many women, how many farmers, how many artisans, how many legal practitioners, how many merchants, how many priests and religious, how many nobles and soldiers? What would people say of a shepherd who didn't even know the number of his flock? It is just as easy for a king to know the number of his people: he only has to want to.
The Full Extent of Knowledge
The king must understand the balance of estates, provincial customs, commerce, and the workings of courts and offices.
He must know whether there are enough farmers; whether, in proportion, there are too many other artisans; too many legal practitioners, too many soldiers, at the state's expense. He must know the character of the people in his different provinces, their main customs, their franchises, their commerce, and the laws of their various trades inside and outside the kingdom. He must know what the various courts established in each province are, the rights attached to public offices, the abuses of those offices, and so on.
The Cost of Ignorance
Without this knowledge, a king is easily deceived, sees only halfway, and his ignorance causes more harm than corrupt ministers.
Otherwise he will never know the real worth of most of the things that pass before his eyes: his ministers will easily deceive him at every turn; he will think he sees everything, and he will see nothing more than halfway. A king ignorant of all these things is only half a king.1 His ignorance leaves him unable to set right what is out of order. His ignorance does more harm than the corruption of the men who govern under him.
Read the original French
Il ne suffit pas de savoir le passé ; il faut connoître le présent. Savez- vous le nombre d'hommes qui composent votre nation; combien d'hommes, combien de femmes, combien de laboureurs, combien d'artisans, combien de praticiens, combien de commerçants, combien de prêtres et de religieux, combien de nobles et de militaires ? Que diroit-on d'un berger qui ne sauroit pas le nombre de son troupeau ? Il est aussi facile à un Roi de savoir le nombre de son peuple :il n'a qu'à le vouloir. Il doit savoir, s'il y a assez de laboureurs ; s'il y a à proportion trop d'autres artisans ; trop de praticiens, trop de militaires, à la charge de l'Etat. Il doit connoître le naturel des habitants de ses différentes provinces, leurs principaux usages, leurs franchises, leur commerce et les lois de leurs divers trafics au-dedans et au-dehors du royaume. Il doit savoir quels sont les divers tribunauxétablis en chaque province, les droits des charges, les abus de ces charges, etc. ; autrement il ne saura point la valeur de la plupart des choses qui passeront devant ses yeux : ses ministres lui en imposeront sans peine à toute heure : il croira tout voir, et ne verra rien qu'à demi.
Un Roi ignorant sur toutes ces choses, n'est qu^à demi Roi. Son ignorance le met hors d'état de redresser ce qui est de travers. Son ignorance fait plus de mal que la corruption des hommes qui gouvernent sous lui.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source reads « n'est qu^à demi Roi »; treated as OCR corruption of « n'est qu'à demi Roi ».
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