town; and the towns that owe them money raise it from those private hands that owe it to them, lay it up in their public chamber, or enjoy the profit of it till the Utopians call for it; and they choose rather to let the greatest part of it lie in their hands, who make advantage by it, than to call for it themselves; but if they see that any of their other neighbours stand more in need of it, then they call it in and lend it to them. Whenever they are engaged in war, which is the only occasion in which their treasure can be usefully employed, they make use of it themselves; in great extremities or sudden accidents they employ it in hiring foreign troops, whom they more willingly expose to danger than their own people; they give them great pay, knowing well that this will work even on their enemies; that it will engage them either to betray their own side, or, at least, to desert it; and that it is the best means of raising mutual jealousies among them. For this end they have an incredible treasure; but they do not keep it as a treasure, but in such a manner as I am almost afraid to tell, lest you think it so extravagant as to be hardly credible. This I have the more reason to apprehend because, if I had not seen it myself, I could not have been easily persuaded to have believed it upon any man’s report.
“Es verdad que todas las cosas nos parecen increíbles en la medida en que difieren de las costumbres conocidas; pero quien sepa juzgar rectamente no se sorprenderá al descubrir que, dado que su constitución difiere tanto de la nuestra, su valoración del oro y de la plata deba medirse por un rasero muy diferente; pues como no tienen uso alguno para el dinero entre ellos, sino que lo guardan como una provisión para acontecimientos que rara vez ocurren y entre los cuales suele haber largos intervalos de por medio, no lo valoran más allá de lo que merece, es decir, en proporción a su utilidad. Así que resulta evidente que deben preferir el hierro antes que el oro o la plata, pues los hombres no pueden vivir sin hierro más que sin fuego o sin agua; pero la Naturaleza no ha señalado