Wealth, Status, and Faction in Machiavelli’s Worldview

Machiavelli’s views on the role of wealth in politics are contextual- ized by exploring their underlying material conditions. First, Machiavelli’s attitudes towards wealth are reconstructed through an analysis of the Prince and Discourses. Then, the emerging picture is linked to the socio-anthropological notion of an ‘economy of esteem,’ conflating wealth and status. Finally, Machiavelli’s proposed solution to the dilemmas of acquisitiveness and corruption, a competition for honor regulated by the republic, is shown to depend on a reading of the Roman historians that obscures the profound social differences between Antiquity and the Italian Comuni.