MONEY AND POWER In the re alm of power, everything must be judged by its cost, and everything has a price. What is offered for free or at b...
MONEY AND POWER In the re alm of power, everything must be judged by its cost, and everything has a price. What is offered for free or at bargain rates often comes with a psychological price tag-complicated feelings of obligation, compromises with quality, the insecurity those compromises bring, on and on. The powerful learn early to protect their most valuable resources: independence and room to maneuver. By paying the full price, they keep themselves free of dangerous entanglements and worries. Being open and flexible with money also teaches the value of strategie generosity, a variation on the old trick of "giving when you are about to take.
" By giving the appropriate gift, you put the recipient under obligation. Generosity softens people up--to be deceived. By gaining a reputation for liberality, you win people's admiration while distracting them from your power plays. By strategically spreading your wealth, you charm the other courtiers, creating pleasure and making valuable allies. Look at the masters of power-the Caesars, the Queen Elizabeths, the Michelangelos, the Medicis: Not a miser among them. Even the great con artists spend freely to swindle. Tight purse strings are unattractive--when engaged in seduction, Casanova would give completely not only of himself but of his wallet. The powerful understand that money is psychologically charged, and that it is also a vessei of politeness and sociability.
They make the human side of money a weapon in their armory. For everyone able to play with money, thousands more are locked in a self-destructive refusal to use money creatively and strategically. These types represent the opposite pole to the powerful, and you must leam to recognize them-either to avoid their poisonous natures or to turn their inflexibility to your advantage: The Greedy Fish. The greedy fish take the human side out of money. Cold and ruthless, they see only the lifeless balance sheet; viewing others solely as either pawns or obstructions in their pursuit of wealth, they trample on people's sentiments and alienate valuable allies. No one wants to work with the greedy fish, and over the years they end up isolated, which often proves their undoing. Greedy fish are the con artist's bread and butter: Lured by the bait of easy money, they swallow the ruse hook, line, and sinker. They are easy to deceive, for they spend so much time dealing with numbers (not with peopIe) that they become blind to psychology, including their own. Either avoid them before they exploit you or play on their greed to your gain. The Bargain Demon. Powerful people judge everything by what it costs, not just in money but in time, dignity, and peace of mind. And this is exactly what Bargain Demons cannot do. Wasting valuable time digging for bargains, they worry endlessly about what they could have gotten elsewhere for a little less. On top of that, the bargain item they do buy is often shabby; perhaps it needs costly repairs, or will have to be replaced twice as fast as a high-quality item. The costs of these pursuits-not always in money (though the price of a bargain is often deceptive) but in time and peace of mind-discourage normal people from undertaking them, but for the Bargain Demon the bargain is an end in itself. These types might seem to harm only themselves, but their attitudes are contagious: Unless you resist them they will infect you with the inseeure feeling that you should have looked harder to find a cheaper price. Don't argue with them or try to change them. Just mentally add up the eost, in time and inner peace if not in hidden financial expense, of the irrational pursuit of a bargain. The Sadist. Financial sadists play vicious power games with money as a way of asserting their power. They might, for example, make you wait for money that is owed you, promising you that the check is in the mail. Or if they hire you to work for them, they meddle in every aspect of the job, haggling and giving you ulcers. Sadists seem to think that paying for something gives them the right to torture and abuse the seIler. They have no sense of the courtier element in money. If you are unlucky enough to get involved with this type, accepting a financial loss may be better in the long run than getting entangled in their destructive power games. The Indiscriminate Giver. Generosity has a definite function in power: It attracts people, softens them up, makes allies out of them. But it has to be used strategically, with a definite end in mind. Indiscriminate Givers, on the other hand, are generous because they want to be loved and admired by all. And their generosity is so indiscriminate and needy that it may not have the desired effect: If they give to one and all, why should the recipient feel special? Attractive as it may seem to make an Indiscriminate Giver your mark, in any involvement with this type you will often feel burdened by their insatiable emotional needs. TRANSGRESSIONS OF THE LAW Transgression I Mter Francisco Pizarro conquered Peru, in 1532, gold from the Incan Empire began to pour into Spain, and Spaniards of all classes started dreaming of the instant riches to be had in the New World. The story so on spread of an Indian chief to the east of Peru who once each year would ritually cover himself in gold dust and dive into a lake. Soon word of mouth transformed EI Dorado, the "Golden Man," into an empire called EI Dorado, wealthier than the Incan, where the streets were paved and the buildings inlaid with gold. This elaboration of the story did not seem implausible, for surely a chief who could afford to waste gold dust in a lake must rule a golden empire.
Soon Spaniards were searching for EI Dorado all over northem South America. from their inability to make a living and their laziness in this respect. They should not occupy themselves with absurdities and untrue stories. THE MUOADDIMAH, IBN KHALDÜN, 1332-1 406 TllE M ISER A miser, to make sure of his property, sold all that he had and converted it into a great lump of gold, which he hid in a hole in the ground, and went continually to visit and inspect it. This roused the curiosity of one of his workmen, who, suspecting that there was a treasure. when his master's back was turned, went to the spot, and stole it away. When the miser returned and found the place empty, he wept and tore his hair. But a neighbor who saw him in this extravagant griej, and learned the cause of it, said: "Fret thyselfno longer, but take a stone and put it in the same place, and thin k that it is your lump of gold; for, as you never meant to use it, the one will do you as much good as the other.
" The worth of money is not in its possession, but in its use. FABLES, AESOP, SIXTH CENTURY B.e. LAW 40 335 There is a popular saying in Japan that goes "Tada yori takai mono wa nai," meaning: "Nothing is more costly than something given free of charge. " THE UNSPOKEN WAY, MICHIHIRO MATSUMOTO, 1 988 MONEY Yusuf Ibn Jafar elAmudi used to take sums of money, sometimes very large ones, from those who came to study wirh him. A distinguished legalist visiting him on ce said: "1 am enchanted and impressed by your teachings, and I am sure that you are directing your disciples in a proper manner. But it is not in accordance with tradition to take money for knowledge. Besides, the action is open to misinterpretation. " El-Amudi said: "1 have ne ver sold any knowledge. There is no money on earth sufficient to pay for it. As for misinterpretation, the abstaining from ta king money will not prevent it, for it will find some other object. Rather should you know that a man who takes money may be greedy for money, or he may not. But a man who takes nothing at all is under the gravest 336 LAW 40 In February of 1541, the largest expedition yet in this venture, led by Pizarro's brother Gonzalo, left Quito, in Ecuador. Resplendent in their armors and colorful silks, 340 Spaniards headed east, along with 4,000 Indians to carry supplies and serve as scouts, 4,000 swine, dozens of llamas, and elose to 1,000 dogs. Eut the expedition was so on hit by torrential rain, which rotted its gear and spoiled its food. Meanwhile, as Gonzalo Pizarro questioned the Indians they met along the way, those who seemed to be withholding information, or who had not even heard of the fabulous kingdom, he would torture and feed to the dogs. Word of the Spaniards' murderousness spread quickly among the Indians, who realized that the only way to avoid Gonzalo's wrath was to make up stories about EI Dorado and send hirn as far away as possible. As Gonzalo and his men followed the leads the Indians gave them, then, they were only led farther into deep jungle. The explorers' spirits sagged. Their uniforms had long since shredded; their armor rusted and they threw it away; their shoes were tom to pieces, forcing them to walk barefoot; the Indian slaves they had set out with had either died or deserted them; they had eaten not only the swine but the hunting dogs and llamas. They lived on roots and fruit. Realizing that they could not continue this way, Pizarro decided to risk river travel, and a barge was built out of rotting wood. Eut the journey down the treacherous Napo River proved no easier. Setting up camp on the river's edge, Gonzalo sent scouts ahead on the barge to find Indian settlements with food. He waited and waited for the scouts to return, only to find out they had decided to desert the expedition and continue down the river on their own. The rain continued without end. Gonzalo's men forgot about EI Dorado; they wanted only to return to Quito. Finally, in August of 1542, a little over a hundred men, from an expedition originally numbering in the thousands, managed to find their way back. To the residents of Quito they seemed to have emerged from hell itself, wrapped in tatters and skins, their bodies covered in sores, and so emaciated as to be unrecognizable. For over a year and a half they had marched in an enormous cirele, two thousand miles by foot. The vast sums of money invested in the expedition had yielded nothing-no sign of EI Dorado and no sign of gold. Interpretation Even after Gonzalo Pizarro's disaster, the Spaniards launched expedition after expedition in search of EI Dorado. And like Pizarro the conquistadors would bum and loot villages, torture Indians, endure unimaginable hardships, and get no eloser to gold. The money they spent on such expeditions cannot be calculated; yet despite the futility of the search, the lure of the fantasy endured. Not only did the search for EI Dorado cost millions of lives-both Indian and Spanish-it helped bring the ruin of the Spanish empire. Gold became Spain's obsession. The gold that did find its way back to Spain-and a lot did-was reinvested in more expeditions, or in the purehase of luxuries, rather than in agriculture or any other productive endeavor. Whole Spanish towns were depopulated as their menfolk left to hunt gold. Farms fell into ruin, and the army had no recruits for its European wars. By the end of the seventeenth century, the entire country had shrunk by more than half of its population; the city of Madrid had gone from a population of 400,000 to 150,000. With diminishing returns from its efforts over so many years, Spain fell into a decline from which it never recovered. Power requires self-discipline. The prospect of wealth, particularly easy, sudden wealth, plays havoc with the emotions. The suddenly rich believe that more is always possible. The free lunch, the money that will fall into your lap, is just around the corner. In this delusion the greedy neglect everything power really depends on: self-control, the goodwill of others, and so on. Understand: With one exception-death-no lasting change in fortune comes quickly. Sudden wealth rarely lasts, for it is built on nothing solid. Never let lust for money lure you out of the protective and enduring fortress of real power. Make power your goal and money will find its way to you. Leave EI Dorado for suckers and fools. Transgression 11 In the early eighteenth century, no one stood higher in English society than the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. The duke, having led successful campaigns against the French, was considered Europe's premier general and strategist. And his wife, the duchess, after much maneuvering, had established herself as the favorite of Queen Anne, who became ruler of England in 1702. In 1704 the duke's triumph at the Battle of Blenheim made hirn the toast of England, and to honor hirn the queen awarded hirn a large plot of land in the town of Woodstock, and the funds to create a great palace there. Calling his planned horne the Palace of Blenheim, the duke chose as his architect the young John Vanbrugh, a kind of Renaissance man who wrote plays as weIl as designed buildings. And so construction began, in the summer of 1705, with much fanfare and great hopes. Vanbrugh had a dramatist's sense of architecture. His palace was to be a monument to Marlborough's brilliance and power, and was to include artificial lakes, enormous bridges, elaborate gardens, and other fantastical touches. From day one, however, the duchess could not be pleased: She thought Vanbrugh was wasting money on yet another stand of trees; she wanted the palace finished as so on as possible. The duchess tortured Vanbrugh and his workmen on every detail. She was consumed with petty maUers; although the government was paying for Blenheim, she counted every penny. Eventually her grumbling, about Blenheim and other things too, created an irreparable rift between her and Queen Anne, who, in 171 1, dismissed her from the court, ordering her to vacate her apartments at the royal palace. When the duchess left (fuming over the loss of her position, and also of her royal salary), she emptied the apartment of every fixture down to the brass doorknobs. Over the next ten years, work on Blenheim would stop and start, as the funds became harder to procure from the government. The duchess suspicion of robbing the disciple of his soul. People who say, 'I take nothing, ' may be found to take away the vo/ition of their victim. " THE DERMIS PROBE, IDRIES SHAH, 1 970 TIIE �IA[\ \nw LOVED \!O'iEY IlETTEH THA" L1n: In ancient times there was an old woodcutter who went to the mountain almost every day to cut wood. It was said that this old man was a miser who hoarded his silver until it changed to gold, and that he ca red more for gold than anything else in all the world. One day a wilderness tiger sprang at him and though he ran he could not escape, and the tiger carried him off in its mouth. The woodcutter's son saw his father's danger, and ran to save him il possible. He carried a long knife, and as he could run faster than the tiger, who had a man to carry, he .\"Oon overlOok them. His father was not much hurt, for the tiger held him by his cloth es. When the old woodclItter saw his son abollt to stab the tiger he called Ollt in great alarm: "Do not spoil the tiger's skin! Do not 5poil the tiger\' skin! II you can kill him withOllt cllfting holes in his LAW 40 337 skin we can get man y pieces ofsilver je)r it. Kill hirn, but da not cut his body. " While the son was listening to his father's instructions the tiger suddenly dashed off into the forest, carrying the old man where the son could not reach hirn, and he was soon killed. "CIlINFSE fAHLE," VARIOI)S FAULES FROM VARIOI)S PLACES, DIANE DI PRIMA, ED., 1 960 '11 1 1': S'IOIlY OF \1 0SI:S -\.'m I'I IAHA(>l 1 It is wrirten in the historie.l' ofthe prophe!s that Moses was sent to Pharaoh wirh many miracles, wonders and honors, Now the daily ration for Pharaoh ,- tahle was 4,000 sheep, 400 co ws, 200 camels. anti a corresponding amoun! oI chickens, fish. he verages, fried meats, sweets, anti other things. All (he people of Egyp( and all his army used to eat a! his table every day. For 40() years he had claimed divinity arul never ceased providing this food. When Moses prayed, saying, "0 Lord, destroy Pharaoh, " God answered his prayer arul said. "I shall destroy hirn in water. and I shall bestow al! his wealth and that of his soldiers on you ami your peoples. " Several 338 LAW 40 thought Vanbrugh was out to ruin her. She quibbled over every carload of stone and bushel of lime, counted every extra yard of iron railing or foot of wainscot, hurling abuse at the wasteful workmen, contractors, and surveyors. Marlborough, old and weary, wanted nothing more than to settle into the palace in his last years, but the project became bogged down in a swamp of litigation, the workmen suing the duchess for wages, the duchess suing the architect right back. In the midst of this interminable wrangling, the duke died. He had never spent a night in his beloved Blenheim. After Marlborough's death, it becarne clear that he had a vast estate, worth over
.E2 million-more than enough to pay for finishing the palace. But the duchess would not relent: She held back Vanbrugh's wages as weIl as the workmen's, and finally had the architect dismissed. The man who took his place finished Blenheim in a few years, following Vanbrugh's designs to the letter. Vanbrugh died in 1726, locked out of the palace by the duchess, unable to set foot in his greatest creation. Foreshadowing the romantic movement, Blenheim had started a whole new trend in architecture, but had given its creator a twenty-year nightmare. Interpretation For the Duchess of Marlborough, money was a way to play sadistic power games. She saw the loss of money as a symbolic loss of power. With Vanbrugh her contortions went deeper still: He was a great artist, and she envied his power to create, to attain a farne outside her reach. She may not have had his gifts, but she did have the money to torture and abuse hirn over the pettiest details-to ruin his life. This kind of sadism, however, be ars an awful price. It made construction that should have lasted ten years take twenty. It poisoned many a relationship, alienated the duchess from the court,
deeply pained the duke (who wanted only to live peacefully in Blenheim), created endless lawsuits, and took years offVanbrugh's life. Finally, too, posterity had the last word: Vanbrugh is recognized as a genius while the duchess is forever remembered for her consummate cheapness. The powerful must have grandeur of spirit-they can never reveal any pettiness. And money is the most visible arena in which to display either grandeur or pettiness. Best spend freely, then, and create a reputation for generosity, which in the end will pay great dividends. Never let financial details blind you to the bigger picture of how people perceive you. Their resentment will cost you in the long run. And if you want to meddle in the work of creative people under your hire, at least pay them weIl. Your money will buy their submission better than your displays of power. OBSERVANCES OF THE LAW Observance I Pietro Aretino, son of a lowly shoemaker, had catapulted hirnself into farne as a writer of biting satires. But like every Renaissance artist, he needed to find a patron who would give hirn a comfortable lifestyle while not inter- fering with his work. In 1528 Aretino decided to attempt a new strategy in the patronage game. Leaving Rome, he established hirnself in Venice, where few had heard of hirn. He had a fair amount of money he had managed to save, but little else. Soon after he moved into his new horne, however, he threw open its doors to rich and poor, regaling them with banquets and amusements. He befriended each and every gondolier, tipping them royally. In the streets, he spread his money liberally, giving it away to beggars, orphans, washerwomen. Among the city's commoners, word quickly spread that Aretino was more than just a great writer, he was a man of power-a kind of lord. Artists and men of influence so on began to frequent Aretino's house. Within a few years he made hirnself a celebrity; no visiting dignitary would think of leaving Venice without paying hirn a call. His generosity had cost hirn most of his savings, but had bought hirn influence and a good namea cornerstone in the foundation of power. Since in Renaissance Italy as elsewhere the ability to spend freely was the privilege of the rich, the aristocracy thought Aretino had to be a man of influence, since he spent money like one. And since the influence of a man of influence is worth buying,
Aretino became the recipient of all sorts of gifts and moneys. Dukes and duchesses, wealthy merchants, and popes and princes competed to gain his favor, and showered hirn with all kinds of presents. Aretino's spending habits, of course, were strategie, and the strategy worked like a charm. But for real money and comfort he needed a great patron's bottomless pockets. Having surveyed the possibilities, he eventually set his sights on the extremely wealthy Marquis of Mantua, and wrote an epic poem that he dedicated to the marquis. This was a common practice of writers looking for patronage: In exchange for a dedication they would get a small stipend, enough to write yet another poem, so that they spent their lives in a kind of constant servility. Aretino, however, wanted power, not a measly wage. He might dedicate a poem to the marquis, but he would offer it to hirn as a gift, implying by doing so that he was not a hired hack looking for a stipend but that he and the marquis were equals.
Aretino's gift-giving did not stop there: As a elose friend of two of Venice's greatest artists, the sculptor Jacopo Sansovino and the painter Titian, he convinced these men to participate in his gift-giving scheme. Aretino had studied the marquis before going to work on hirn, and knew his taste inside and out; he was able to advise Sansovino and Titian what subject matter would please the marquis most. When he then sent a Sansovino sculpture and a Titian painting to the marquis as gifts from all three of them, the man was beside hirnself with joy. Over the next few months, Aretino sent other gifts-swords, saddles, the glass that was a Venetian specialty, things he knew the marquis prized. Soon he, Titian, and Sansovino began to receive gifts from the marquis in return. And the strategy went further: When the son-in-Iaw of a friend of Aretino's found hirnself in jail in Mantua, Aretino was able to get the marquis to arrange his release. Aretino's friend, a wealthy merchant, was a man of great influence in Venice; by turning the goodwill he had built up years passed hy after this promise, and Pharaoh, doomed to ruin, continued to live in all his magnificence. Moses was impatient for God to destroy Pharaoh quickly, and he could not endure to wait any langer. So he fasted for forty days and went to Mount Sinai, and in his communing with god he said, "0 Lord, Thou didst promise that Thou wouldst destroy Pharaoh, and still he has forsaken none of his blasphemies and pretensions. So when wilt Thou destroy hirn?" A voice came from The Truth saying, "0 Moses, you want Me to destroy Pharaoh as quickly as possihle, but a thousand times a thousand of My servants want Me never to do so, because they partake of his bounty and enjoy tranquillity under his rule. Sy My power I swear that as lang as he provides abundant food and comfort for My ereatu res, I shall not destroy hirn. " Moses said, " Then when will Thy promise be fulfilled?" God said, "My promise will be fulfilled when he withholds his provision from My creatures. If ever he begins to lessen his bounty, know that his hour is drawing near. It chanced that one day Pharaoh said to Haman, "Moses has gathered the Sons of Israel about hirn and is causing us disquiet. We know not what will he LAW 40 339 the issue of his affair with uso We must keep our stores full iest at any time we be without resources. So we must halve our daily rations and keep the saving in reserve. " He deducted 2,000 sheep, 200 co ws, and a 100 camels, and similarly every two or three days reduced the ration. Moses then knew that the promise ofThe Truth was near to fulfillment, for excessive economy is a sign of decline and a bad omen.
The masters of tradition say that on the day when Pharaoh was drowned only two ewes had been killed in his küchen. Nothing is better than generosity .... 1f a man is rich and desires, without a royal charter, to act like a lord; if he wants men to humble themselves before him, to revere him and call him lord and prince, then tell him every day to spread a table with victuals. All those who have acquired renown in the world, have gained it mainly through hospitality, while the miserly and avaricious are despised in both worlds. THE BOOK OF GOVERNMENT OR RULES FOR KINGS, NIZAM AL-MuLK, ELEVENTH CENTURY 340 LAW 40 with the marquis to use, Aretino had now bought this man's indebtedness, too, and he in turn would help Aretino when he could.
The circle of influence was growing wider. Time and again, Aretino was able to cash in on the immense political power of the marquis, who also helped him in his many court romances. Eventually, however, the relationship became strained, as Aretino came to feel that the marquis should have requited his generosity better. But he would not lower hirnself to begging or whining: Since the exchange of gifts between the two men had made them equals, it would not seem right to bring up money. He simply withdrew from the marquis's circle and hunted for other wealthy prey, settling first on the French king Francis, then the Medicis, the Duke of Urbino, Emperor Charles V, and more. In the end, having many patrons meant he did not have to bow to any of them, and his power seemed comparable to that of a great lord. Interpretation Aretino understood two fundamental properties of money: First, that it has to circulate to bring power. What money should buy is not lifeless objects but power over people. By keeping money in constant circulation, Aretino bought an ever-expanding circle of influence that in the end more than compensated hirn for his expenses. Second, Aretino understood the key property of the gift. To give a gift is to imply that you and the recipient are equals at the very least, or that you are the recipient's superior. A gift also involves an indebtedness or obligation; when friends, for instance, offer you something for free, you can be sure they expect something in return, and that to get it they are making you feel indebted. (The mechanism may or may not be entirely conscious on their part, but this is how it works.) Aretino avoided such encumbrances on his freedom. Instead of acting like a menial who expects the powerful to pay his way in life, he turned the whole dynamic around; instead of being indebted to the powerful, he made the powerful indebted to hirn. This was the point of his gift-giving, a ladder that carried hirn to the highest social levels. By the end of his life he had become the most famous writer in Europe.
Understand: Money may determine power relationships, but those relationships need not depend on the amount of money you have; they also depend on the way you use it. Powerful people give freely, buying influence rather than things. If you accept the inferior position because you have no fortune yet, you may find yourself in it forever. Play the trick that Aretino played on Italy's aristocracy: Imagine yourself an equal. Play the lord, give freely, open your doors, circulate your money, and create the facade of power through an alchemy that transforms money into influence. Observance II Soon after Baron James Rothschild made his fortune in Paris in the early 1820s, he faced his most intractable problem: How could a Jew and a German, a total outsider to French society, win the respect of the xenophobie French upper classes? Rothschild was a man who understood power-he knew that his fortune would bring hirn status, but that if he remained socially alienated neither his status nor his fortune would last. So he looked at the society of the time and asked what would win their hearts. Charity? The French couldn't care less. Political influence? He already had that, and if anything it only made people more suspicious of hirn. The one weak spot, he decided, was boredom. In the period of the restoration of the monarchy, the French upper classes were bored. So Rothschild began to spend astounding sums of money on entertaining them. He hired the best architects in France to design his gardens and ballroom; he hired Marie-Antoine Careme, the most celebrated French chef, to prepare the most lavish parties Paris had ever witnessed; no Frenchman could resist, even if the parties were given by a German Jew. Rothschild's weekly soirees began to attract bigger and bigger numbers. Over the next few years he won the only thing that would seeure an outsider's power: social acceptance
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