Machiavelli asks how to measure a principality's strength: can the prince, in need, support himself with his own resources, or must he always depend on others?
He divides rulers into two kinds. Those with enough men or money to raise an army and fight in the open field can stand on their own. Those who cannot meet the enemy outside must shelter behind walls. The first case belongs to earlier chapters. For the second, Machiavelli offers defensive doctrine: provision and fortify your towns, and do not on any account try to defend the open country.
A well-fortified city whose prince has governed his subjects as advised elsewhere will not be attacked lightly. Men avoid enterprises where difficulty is visible. The German free cities show the model: little surrounding territory, obedience to the emperor only when it suits them, strong ditches and walls, artillery, public depots stocked for a year's eating, drinking, and firing, work for the people, military exercises in repute, and ordinances to uphold the whole system. A prince with a strong city who has not made himself odious may never be attacked, or an attacker may withdraw in disgrace, especially because keeping an army in the field for a whole year is nearly impossible in this changeable world.
Skeptics say subjects with property outside the walls will turn on the prince when the enemy burns the countryside. Machiavelli answers that a powerful prince alternates hope and fear of the enemy's cruelty and restrains the boldest subjects. The enemy will burn the country on arrival while spirits are still hot for defense, so the prince should not hesitate to sacrifice open land. Once damage is done, subjects bind themselves to the prince because he now appears under obligation to them after their houses were ruined in his defense. Men are bound as much by benefits they confer as by those they receive.
Coming Up in Chapter 11
In the next chapter, Machiavelli turns to another crucial aspect of power and leadership Machiavelli closes his survey of principality types with ecclesiastical states. They are hard to acquire but easy to hold because ancient religious ordinances sustain them no matter how the prince lives..
