Ada Palmer: observation

Transcript context

…One element of governance, or of being a good prince at the time, that I didn’t appreciate but Machiavelli makes a huge point of, is how formidable and reputable people consider you to be. That’s relevant both for preventing others from invading you and for extracting concessions from other people. In his diplomatic career, he is sent out to a bunch of different foreign polities to basically determine, “Hey, is this a serious person?” So Maximilian is trying to extract a bribe from Florence to not invade it on its way down to Italy. Florence says, “Go check out if this guy’s for real.” He has to make some judgment about this person. It’s useful to remember, Florence has paid these bribes a lot. Florence’s tactic is: if someone is invading the area, can we bribe them? Because paying somebody to not attack you is a much more surefire thing than preparing to actually fight against them. Your family’s lands get trampled by soldiers. You suffer economically. So it’s an old Florentine tactic. It’s not a new thing that Maximilian is threatening to invade Italy and trying to extract a bribe. Florence basically every year is like, “Okay, who do we need to bribe this year to not invade us? Here’s this year’s bribing-a-king budget. To whom does it go? Is Maximilian a serious threat, or are we saving this money in case there’s a threat from somebody more serious like the King of Naples or the King of France or Milan or the Venetians?” At this time, the pope is not just a spiritual leader but a temporal power.…

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