Maxims 1-12

1. Unity of Authority*

The sovereign authority should be unrivalled. He should be superior to:

• all individuals of society, and
• all unjust enterprises of particular interests.

The domination and subjection of certain forces is the safeguard and lawful interest of all.

The system of counter-forces in a government is a destructive theory.

• It breeds only discord between the large proprietors and the lower class of farmers.
• It divides society into different orders of citizens.
  • Some orders exercise sovereign authority over others.
  • This destroys the general interest of the nation itself
  • It introduces the dissension of particular interests between the different classes of people.

Such a division should invest in the order of the government of an agricultural kingdom in order to unite all interests.

• Its capital object should be the prosperity of agriculture.
  • Agriculture is the source of the state’s and the people’s riches.

2. The Nation Should be Educated in the General Natural Laws*, which make a Government more Perfect

The study of human jurisprudence is not enough to produce statesmen.

Those who are working in the public service should be constrained to observe natural law.

• This law tends toward the good of society as a whole.

The clear and practical knowledge a nation acquires by experience and reflection should be added to the general science of government.

• This will make the sovereign authority always surer in the light of experience.
• In this way it will institute the best laws for the well-being of all to reach the greatest possible prosperity for society.

3. Earth, Agriculture, Sole Source of Riches*

The sovereign and the nation should always remember that:

• the earth is the sole source of all riches
• it is agriculture which multiplies riches.

It is the augmentation of riches that assures the wealth of the population.

Men and wealth:

• cause agriculture to prosper
• extend commerce
• animate industry
• increase and perpetuate all wealth.

The success of all the parties concerned in the administration of the kingdom depends on agriculture.

4. Landed Property and Movable Riches Must be Assured to Their Legitimate Possessors

The security of property is the substructure upon which the economic order of society rests.

Without the certainty of the security and safety of property, the land would remain unfilled.

There would be neither proprietors nor tenants to make the necessary outlay in cultivating the land, if the title to the land and its products were not assured to them who made the necessary outlay towards improvement and cultivation.

It is the surety of permanent possession that brings about the employ of labor and riches in the improvement and culture of the land, and in industrial and commercial enterprises.

Only the sovereign power can assure the property of subjects who have a primitive right to the portion of the fruits of the earth, the sole source of riches.

5. The Tax Must Not Destroy

The taxes must not be destructive nor disproportionate to the revenue of the nation.

The increase in taxes should attend an increase in revenue.

Taxes should be immediately placed on the net product of property in land, and not on the wages of man, nor on produce.

A tax on wages or produce would:

• increase the cost of collection
• be prejudicial to commerce
• annually destroy a portion of the national wealth

Taxes should neither be placed on the riches of cultivators of landed property.

This is because the investment in the agriculture of a kingdom, i.e., advance money expended in agriculture, must be regarded as a landed estate to be preciously preserved for the raising of taxes and revenue and subsistence for all classes of citizens.

Otherwise the tax would degenerate to spoliation and promptly cause the state to ruin and decay.

6. Sufficient Investment

The investment of cultivators should be sufficient to cause annually to re-appear from the expense undergone in cultivating the land the greatest possible amount of production.

If the investment is not sufficient the expense of culture is larger in proportion and gives less of net product.

7. Complete Circulation

Let the sum total of the revenues be annually returned into and along the entire course of circulation.

Money fortunes should not be accumulated. Rather, there should be compensation between those which are made and those which are derived in the circulation.

Otherwise, the money fortunes would:

• halt the distribution of a portion of the annual revenue of the nation and
• withhold the moneys of the kingdom

This will harm their:

• re-investment into the cultivation of the land
• payment of the artisan’s wages

It would make the various professions less lucrative and diminish the reproduction of revenues and taxes.

8. Favor for Productive Expenditures

The economic government should favor productive expenditures and the commerce of the land’s products.

Fruitless expenditure should attend to itself.

9. Preference for Agriculture

A nation which has a large territory:

• should cultivate
• should not use too much of the people’s money in the manufactures and in the commerce of luxuries to the prejudice of labor and agricultural investments

10. Revenue Expended in the Country

None of the local revenue should pass into foreign countries without return either in money or merchandise.

11. Evils of Emigration

The desertion of those inhabitants who would take with them their wealth, to the loss of the kingdom, should be prevented.

12. Protection of the Person and the Wealth of Agriculturists

The children of rich farmers should establish themselves in the country so as to perpetuate and preserve husbandry.

If any vexation causes them to abandon the countryside and move to the cities, they take with them the wealth of their fathers who were employed in agriculture.

Fewer people should move to the countryside relative to wealth. This is because the more one employs money in agriculture, the less it occupies men. This increases revenue and prosperity more.

An example is grain, the great product of the rich agriculturist. Compare that with the contracted tillage of a poor tenant who labors with an axe or a cow.