The Greatness of Cities [5]
by that means it shall have the less need of others (which enforceth people otherwhile to leave their habitations) and be able to afford the more to others (which draweth our neighbours the sooner to our country). But the fruitfulness of the land sufficeth not simply of itself alone to raise a city unto greatness: for many provinces there are, and they very rich, that have never a good city in them; as, for example, Piedmont is one, and there is not a country throughout all Italy that hath more plenty of corn, cattle, wine, and of excellent fruits of all sorts, than it hath, and it hath maintained for many years the armies and forces both of Spain and France. And in England, London excepted, although the country do abound in plenty of all good things, yet there is not a city in it that deserves to be called great. As also in France, Paris excepted, which notwithstanding is not seated in the fruitfullest country of that great kingdom; for in pleasantness it giveth place to Touraine, in abundance of all things to Saintonge and Poitiers, in variety of fruits to Languedoc, in commodiousness of the seas to Normandy, in store of wine to Burgundy, in abundance of corn to Champagne, in either of both to the country of Orleans, in cattle to Brittany and the territory of Bourges. By all which it doth appear that to the advancing of a city unto greatness it sufficeth not simply of itself alone that the territory be fruitful. And the reason thereof is plain; for where a country doth plentifully abound with all matter of good things, the inhabitants, finding all those things at home that are fit, necessary and profitable for their use, neither care nor have cause to go anywhere else to seek them, but take the benefit and use of them with ease where they grow. For every man loves to procure his commodity with the most ease he may: and when they find them with ease at home, to what end should they travel to fetch them elsewhere? And this reason proves the more strong where the people affect and long least after vain and idle delights and pleasures. It sufficeth not therefore to the gathering of a society of people together to have abundance of wealth and substance alone, but there must be besides that some other form and matter to unite and hold them in one place together. And that is the easiness and commodiousness of conduct, the carrying out and bringing in, I mean, of commodities of wares to and fro.
10. Of the commodity of conduct
This commodity is lent unto us partly of the land and partly of the water. Of the land, if it be plain. For by that means it conduceth easily the merchandise and goods of all sorts and kinds, upon carts, horses, mules and other beasts of burden; and men make their journeys the more commodiously on foot, on horse, in chariot, and in other suchlike sort and matter. The Portuguese do write that in some large and spacious plains of China they use coaches with sails, which some essayed not many years since in Spain. Of the water, this commodity is lent us if it be navigable; and without comparison the commodity is much better and more worth far, which the water do afford us than which the earth doth give us, both for ease and speediness, forasmuch as in less time, and with less charge and labour (without proportion in it) greater carriages are brought from countries most remote by water than by land. Now your navigable water is either of the sea or of the river or of the lake, which are natural helps and means, or of channels or of pools as that of Moeris in Egypt, which was 450 miles about, made by art and by man's industry and labour. It seems in very truth that God created the water, not only for a necessary element to the perfection of nature, but more than so, for a most ready means to conduct and bring goods from one country to another. For His Divine Majesty, willing that men should mutually embrace each other as members of one body, divided in such sort His blessings as to no nation did he give all things, to the end that others having need of us, and contrariwise
10. Of the commodity of conduct
This commodity is lent unto us partly of the land and partly of the water. Of the land, if it be plain. For by that means it conduceth easily the merchandise and goods of all sorts and kinds, upon carts, horses, mules and other beasts of burden; and men make their journeys the more commodiously on foot, on horse, in chariot, and in other suchlike sort and matter. The Portuguese do write that in some large and spacious plains of China they use coaches with sails, which some essayed not many years since in Spain. Of the water, this commodity is lent us if it be navigable; and without comparison the commodity is much better and more worth far, which the water do afford us than which the earth doth give us, both for ease and speediness, forasmuch as in less time, and with less charge and labour (without proportion in it) greater carriages are brought from countries most remote by water than by land. Now your navigable water is either of the sea or of the river or of the lake, which are natural helps and means, or of channels or of pools as that of Moeris in Egypt, which was 450 miles about, made by art and by man's industry and labour. It seems in very truth that God created the water, not only for a necessary element to the perfection of nature, but more than so, for a most ready means to conduct and bring goods from one country to another. For His Divine Majesty, willing that men should mutually embrace each other as members of one body, divided in such sort His blessings as to no nation did he give all things, to the end that others having need of us, and contrariwise