L’avarice commence où la pauvreté cesse

L’avarice commence où la pauvreté cesse names the change in Jérôme-Nicolas Séchard that begins when he glimpses the possibility of making a fortune. The maxim marks a shift from material hardship to acquisitive calculation: though he remains unable to read or write and understands little of typesetting, he becomes adept at using the practical details of the trade to his advantage.

Meaning in Context

The saying appears after Jérôme-Nicolas Séchard has become able to pay a foreman. It connects his growing means with a new kind of intelligence: he reads the business through prices, bargaining power, and opportunities to acquire materials cheaply. The phrase does not describe a sudden change in his education or technical knowledge; it frames the development of a suspicious, penetrating commercial instinct as poverty recedes.

The Printer’s Methods

Jérôme-Nicolas Séchard learns to estimate the price of pages and sheets according to the type used. He tells customers that large letters cost more to handle, but gives the opposite rationale when discussing small ones. Because composition is the part of printing he understands least, he is especially afraid of making a mistake there and consistently makes contracts heavily in his own favor. When compositors work by the hour, he keeps them under constant observation.

He also turns other people’s financial distress into an opportunity, buying their paper at very low prices and storing it. By this point, he owns the building that has long housed the printing works. These details give the maxim its concrete force: the end of poverty is registered not as ease or generosity but as vigilance, accumulation, and advantage-taking.

Narrative Function

The expression condenses the contrast between Jérôme-Nicolas Séchard’s limited formal capacities and his sharp material instinct. He never learns the craft’s intellectual side, yet recognizes how to price, monitor, bargain, and stockpile. The maxim therefore introduces his conduct as a printer and helps explain how someone without learning becomes formidable in business: prosperity does not remove his insecurity so much as give it new instruments.