Chapter VIII: Letter I: Men’s prosperity is in their own hands; and no forms of

government are, in themselves, of the least use. The first
beginnings of prosperity must be in getting food, clothes, and
fuel. These cannot be got either by the fine arts, or the military
arts. Neither painting nor fighting feed men; nor can capital, in
the form of money or machinery, feed them. All capital is imaginary
or unimportant, except the quantity of food existing in the world
at any given moment. Finally, men cannot live by lending money to
each other, and the conditions of such loan at present are absurd
and deadly. [42]