Qualiter necesse est talem civitatem, construendam a rege, habere copiam rerum victualium, quia sine eis civitas esse perfecta non potest; et distinguit duplicem modum istius copiae, primum tamen magis commendat
The City Must Feed Itself
A city must be built on a site that is both healthful and fertile enough to sustain its population, and two possible means of supply are identified: the fertility of the surrounding land and the importation of goods through trade.
Now the site chosen for building a city must be not only one whose healthfulness preserves the inhabitants, but also one whose fertility suffices for sustenance. For it is not possible for a multitude of people to live where no supply of provisions is available. So, as Vitruvius reports, when Xenocrates, a most skilled architect, was showing Alexander the Macedonian that a city of outstanding beauty could be built on a certain mountain, Alexander is said to ask whether there were fields that could supply the city with grain. When he found that these were lacking, he replied that it would be blameworthy for anyone to build a city in such a place. For just as a newborn infant cannot be nourished without a nurse's milk, nor be brought to growth, so a city cannot have a large population without an abundance of food. There are, however, two ways in which an abundance of goods can be available to any city. One, which is so called, is on account of the fertility of the surrounding region, abundantly producing all that human life requires. The other is through trade, by which the necessities of life are brought to that same place from various regions.
Self-Sufficiency Surpasses Trade
The way of self-sufficiency through the land's own fertility is shown to be worthier, more secure, and more useful for civic life than dependence on trade.
The first way is clearly proven to be more suitable. For something is worthier precisely to the extent that it's more self-sufficient, because whatever needs something else is shown to be lacking. A city that has a surrounding region sufficient for life's necessities possesses sufficiency more fully than one that needs to receive them from others through trade. A city that has an abundance of resources from its own territory is worthier than one that abounds through merchants, since this also seems more secure, because wars, shifting road conditions, and various other dangers can easily hinder the transport of provisions, and so the city will be crushed by a shortage of food. This way is also more useful for civic life. For a city that depends on a multitude of trades for its own upkeep must necessarily endure a constant influx of foreigners. But the presence of foreigners greatly corrupts the citizens' morals, following Aristotle's teaching in his Politics, because it's inevitable that people raised under different laws and customs will, in many respects, behave differently than the citizens' own standards, and so, when citizens are drawn by example to similar pursuits, civic life is thrown into disorder. And again: if the citizens themselves are absorbed in trade, an opening is made for many vices.
How Trade Corrupts Civic Virtue
Dependence on trade corrupts morals, enervates military virtue, and fosters urban disorder, so provisions drawn from a city's own fields are far better.
Since merchants' zeal is especially directed toward profit, through the practice of trading greed is carried into the hearts of the citizens, and the result is that in the city everything becomes a matter of sale; with good faith withdrawn, room is opened for frauds; and with the public good despised, each person will serve their own advantage, and the pursuit of virtue will decline, since the honor due to virtue is bestowed as a reward on everyone — from which it follows that in such a city civil life is bound to be corrupted. The practice of trading, however, is far more contrary to military training than you might think. For merchants, while they cultivate shade and are free from labors, and while they enjoy their pleasures, grow soft in spirit, and their bodies become weak and unfit for military service; hence under civil law trading is forbidden to soldiers. In short, that city tends to be more peaceful whose people gather less often and linger less within the city walls. For from the frequent crowding of people comes the occasion for quarrels, and the fuel for seditions is supplied. Hence, following Aristotle's teaching, it is indeed more useful for the people to be occupied outside the cities than to remain continually within the city walls. But if a city is devoted to trading, it is especially necessary that the citizens reside within the city and carry on their trading there. It is better, therefore, that the city's supply of provisions come from its own fields than that the city be wholly exposed to trading.
A Measured Place for Merchants
Merchants should not be entirely excluded from a well-ordered city, but their use must be kept within measure.
And yet merchants shouldn't be entirely shut out of the city, because it's not easy to find a place so rich in everything needed for life that it won't require certain goods brought in from elsewhere; and the surplus that abounds in one place would become harmful to many if, through the service of merchants, it couldn't be carried off to other regions. Therefore a well-ordered city needs to make measured use of merchants.
Read the original Latin
Oportet autem ut locus construendae urbi electus non solum talis sit, qui salubritate habitatores conservet, sed ubertate ad victum sufficiat. Non enim est possibile multitudinem hominum habitare ubi victualium non suppetit copia. Unde, ut Vitruvius refert, cum Xenocrates architector peritissimus Alexandro Macedoni demonstraret in quodam monte civitatem egregiae formae construi posse, interrogasse fertur Alexander si essent agri qui civitati possent frumentorum copiam ministrare. Quod cum deficere inveniret, respondit vituperandum esse si quis in tali loco civitatem construeret. Sicut enim natus infans non potest ali sine nutricis lacte nec ad incrementum perduci, sic civitas sine ciborum abundantia frequentiam populi habere non potest. Duo tamen sunt modi quibus alicui civitati potest affluentia rerum suppetere. Unus, qui dictus est, propter regionis fertilitatem abunde omnia producentis, quae humanae vitae requirit necessitas. Alius autem per mercationis usum, ex quo ibidem necessaria vitae ex diversis partibus adducantur.
Primus autem modus convenientior esse manifeste convincitur. Tanto enim aliquid dignius est, quanto per se sufficientius invenitur: quia quod alio indiget, deficiens esse monstratur. Sufficientiam autem plenius possidet civitas, cui circumiacens regio sufficiens est ad necessaria vitae, quam illa quae indiget ab aliis per mercationem accipere. Dignior enim est civitas si abundantiam rerum habeat ex territorio proprio, quam si per mercatores abundet; cum hoc etiam videatur esse securius, quia propter bellorum eventus et diversa viarum discrimina, de facili potest impediri victualium deportatio, et sic civitas per defectum victualium opprimetur. Est etiam hoc utilius ad conversationem civilem. Nam civitas quae ad sui sustentationem mercationum multitudine indiget, necesse est ut continuum extraneorum convictum patiatur. Extraneorum autem conversatio corrumpit plurimum civium mores, secundum Aristotelis doctrinam in sua politica, quia necesse est evenire ut homines extranei aliis legibus et consuetudinibus enutriti, in multis aliter agant quam sint civium mores, et sic, dum cives exemplo ad agenda similia provocantur, civilis conversatio perturbatur. Rursus: si cives ipsi mercationibus fuerint dediti, pandetur pluribus vitiis aditus.
Nam cum negotiatorum studium maxime ad lucrum tendat, per negotiationis usum cupiditas in cordibus civium traducitur, ex quo convenit, ut in civitate omnia fiant venalia, et fide subtracta, locus fraudibus aperitur, publicoque bono contempto, proprio commodo quisque deserviet, deficietque virtutis studium, dum honor virtutis praemium omnibus deferetur: unde necesse erit in tali civitate civilem conversationem corrumpi. Est autem negotiationis usus contrarius quam plurimum exercitio militari. Negotiatores enim dum umbram colunt, a laboribus vacant, et dum fruuntur deliciis, mollescunt animo, et corpora redduntur debilia et ad labores militares inepta: unde secundum iura civilia negotiatio est militibus interdicta. Denique civitas illa solet esse magis pacifica, cuius populus rarius congregatur, minusque intra urbis moenia residet. Ex frequenti enim hominum concursu datur occasio litibus et seditionibus materia ministratur. Unde secundum Aristotelis doctrinam, utilius est quidem quod populus extra civitates exerceatur, quam quod intra civitatis moenia iugiter commoretur. Si autem civitas sit mercationibus dedita, maxime necesse est ut intra urbem cives resideant ibique mercationes exerceant. Melius igitur est quod civitati victualium copia suppetat ex propriis agris, quam quod civitas sit totaliter negotiationi exposita.
Nec tamen negotiatores omnino a civitate oportet excludi, quia non de facili potest inveniri locus qui sic omnibus vitae necessariis abundet quod non indigeat aliquibus aliunde allatis; eorumque quae in eodem loco superabundant eodem modo redderetur multis damnosa copia, si per mercatorum officium ad alia loca transferri non possent. Unde oportet quod perfecta civitas moderate mercatoribus utatur.
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