Of the fruitfulness of the soil

The second cause of the greatness of a city is the fruitfulness of the country. For the sustenance of the life of man, consisting on food and clothing, and both of them gotten out of those things the earth doth produce, the fruitfulness of the country cannot but be a mighty help unto it. And if it fall out to be so great as it not only well sufficeth to maintain the inhabitants thereof, but also to supply the wants of their bordering neighbours, it serveth our purpose so much the better.

And forasmuch as all soils produce not all things, how much more rich and more able a country shall be to produce divers and sundry things of profit and commodity, so much the more sufficient and fit it will be found to raise a great city. For 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.