The Prince

Title: The Prince
Author: Niccolo Machiavelli
Translator: W. K. Marriott
Publisher: Fingerprint! Classics, 2025 (First published 1532)
ISBN: 9789354406683
Pages: 174

Please look up the meaning of 'Machiavellianism' and 'Machiavellian' in any dictionary. The specific meaning assigned to the first in Merriam-Webster is that 'the view that politics is amoral and that any means however unscrupulous can justifiably be used in achieving political power', while the second term is defined as 'marked by cunning, duplicity or bad faith'. Not an edifying principle, obviously. Even though all the states, whether old or new, practised them for survival, the moment a keen political observer put it in a language to be understood by a medieval European potentate, it became wily, unscrupulous and cunning advice! Kautilya’s Arthashastra foreshadowed this discourse by eighteen centuries and that treatise is also attributed to be heartless, manipulative and - not altogether strangely - Machiavellian! Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) was a Florentine diplomat, author, philosopher and historian who lived during the Italian Renaissance. 'The Prince' is dedicated to Lorenzo de Medici in the hope of landing on a plum job. This hardback volume is a collector's item to any serious reader.

Machiavelli spent over a decade navigating the treacherous landscape of Italian city-states, observing the brutal and effective tactics of leaders like Cesare Borgia. In 1512, the fall of the Florentine Republic and the return of the Medici family led to his immediate dismissal, followed by imprisonment and torture. Forced into exile at his country estate, he pivoted to writing as a desperate attempt to remain intellectually engaged with the political world. In 1513, he composed 'The Prince' which was essentially a 'job application' intended to win back the favour of the Medici. It took a radical departure from medieval idealism, focusing instead on political realism (realpolitik). Machiavelli argued that for a ruler to maintain state stability, they must be prepared to act immorally if the specific situation demands it. By strictly separating ethics from governance, he challenged the long-held notion that a successful leader must always be a 'good man' in the religious sense. Today, Machiavelli is regarded as the father of modern political science, for his cold-eyed, unsentimental analysis. In the dedication of his work, Machiavelli declares that he has nothing of value greater than this study which contains knowledge of the actions of great men, acquired by long experience in contemporary affairs and a continual study of antiquity.

The book starts with the definition of a principality, how many types there are, how they can be acquired, how they can be kept and why they are lost. Military is not everything. Although one may be very strong in armed forces, yet in entering a province, one has need of the goodwill of the natives. If the conquered province differs in language or customs or laws, it is better the prince stays in the province and tame the people with moderation. The prince should make himself the head and defender of his less-powerful neighbours and try to weaken the more powerful amongst them. War is not to be avoided and is only deferred to one's own disadvantage. Machiavelli gives the example of Louis XII losing his possessions in Italy by contravening his principles of statecraft.

Democracy in any form was unheard of in Italy at that time. Machiavelli introduces two types of monarchic states. The first one is in which the prince is assisted by his servants functioning as ministers whom he assigns to various provinces and the other is in which the prince is assisted by barons with provincial roots who are not amenable to transfer to any other place. The empire of the Turks was of the former variety which makes it difficult to conquer, but is easy to hold once it is gained. Similar was the empire of Darius which Alexander conquered. The author identifies fortune and goodwill as two unstable things on which a prince must not count on too much. The insults or losses suffered by the nobles is a prickly issue and it is not easy to get past old wrongs. He warns the prince that one who believes that new benefits will cause great personages to forget old injuries is deceived. Unethical injunctions appear at this point. If a prince assumes power by wicked means, but if it was applied at one blow and was necessary to one's security and that are not persisted afterwards, people forget and forgive such men. Injuries ought to be inflicted all at once while benefits are to be given little by little, so that the flavour of them may last longer. When people receive goodness from a prince of whom they were expecting evil, they are bound more closely to their benefactor. Machiavelli is under no delusion about the potential of violence. The chief foundations of all states are good laws and good arms. There cannot be good laws when the state is not well-armed. He reiterates that where they are well-armed, they have good laws. The prince should be wary of mercenary troops, as they are ambitious and unfaithful. In peacetime, they rob the state. They are valiant before friends, but cowardly before enemies.

A good portion of the treatise is dedicated to advise on how the prince should handle war and should appear to the people. A prince ought to have no other thought than war and its rules and discipline, for this is the sole art that upholds his position. A prince who does not understand it cannot be respected by his soldiers. He should exercise it either by action or by study. Sometimes, if a prince follows virtue, it would lead to his ruin and if he follows vice, that would bring him security and prosperity. A prince should appear liberal and liberality should be expressed in a way to bring reputation for it. If his liberality becomes excessive, he'd have to raise taxes and he will be reproached for this. If he is able to engage in enterprises without burdening the people, they will overlook even if he is mean. As far as possible, the money he spends for liberality should not be his or his subjects', but of somebody else’s - like pillage. A prince who keeps his subjects united and loyal need not mind the reproach of cruelty. It is better than one showing too much mercy and cause disorders to arise. It is much safer for a prince to be feared than loved. Generally, people are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly and covetous, and they have less scruple in offending one who is beloved than one who is feared. A prince should keep his hands off the property of his subjects because men are more quickly forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony. He should avoid being hated.

As Machiavelli believes, the job of a dynamic prince is the ever-continuing persuasion of the subjects to hold him in high esteem even though he may be paying only lip-service to his principles. He proposes a detailed recipe for the prince to remain deceitful. He claims that the populace is in general bad, and will not keep faith with the prince. This makes it justifiable for the prince not to keep faith with them. But he should disguise this behaviour and appear good, thereby being a great pretender and dissembler. The prince should appear to be merciful, faithful, humane, upright and most important of all, religious. His underlying reason for this duplicity is that everyone sees what you appear to be, but few really know what you are, and those few dare not oppose you against the opinion of the many. A wise prince should craftily foster some animosity against himself so that having crushed it, his renown may rise higher. The prince ought to keep wise men as advisors and to give them the liberty of speaking the truth to him, but only of those things of which he enquires. If everybody starts speaking the truth, respect for the prince abates. The vulnerability of the people should be exploited, as suggested by the Italian Kautilya. If the prince had inflicted some injury on people and if those injured are poor and scattered, they cannot and will not strike back.

The translation of the book from Italian is done by W.K. Marriott, who has done a clean job by sticking to the original archaic style as far as possible. In fact, he does it a little too well in that the focus is on producing an exact, literal rendering of the original, rather than a paraphrased version more adapted to modern notions of style, expression and narrative. In order to appreciate all of Machiavelli's points and rhetoric, the reader needs to have a good knowledge of the classics and medieval Italian history when Popes had sons and they interfered in secular authority with a fervour that was in no way inspired by the divine. As is expected, gender equality was not a concern for this medieval text. Machiavelli compares fortune to a woman the prince courts. If he wishes to keep her subservient, it was necessary to beat and ill-treat her! And, she is said to be a lover of young men, because they are less cautious, more violent and with more audacity command her.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star