“You can’t earn stone palaces by honest labour.’ Justify with reference to the story.

OR

“You can’t earn stone palaces by honest labour”. How does the author relate this statement to the actions of the king of Monaco?

The King of Monaco levied taxes on tobacco, wine and spirit. He also levied a poll tax. This was the source of his income. But, with the revenue collected this way, the king found it difficult to feed his courtiers, his officials and to meet his own expenses. Nobody could live a king’s life with the meagre income as the Prince of Monaco got from his subjects. Therefore, to drive home the truth of this statement he quotes the proverb, ‘You can’t earn stone palaces by honest labour’. It only means that if one wants to live beyond his means, honest labour alone cannot fetch him enough money for his luxuries.

It implies that one has to take recourse to earn extra money by some dishonest or unethical means. The King of Monaco also had a source of additional or alternative revenue. He used to receive a large sum of money regularly from a gaming housekeeper, who paid it out of his profits earned from his gaming house.

The king knew that earning one’s living by running a gaming house where people risked their money at the roulette table was a dirty business. Yet, he had allowed it to run because he needed more money. Also, he knew that collecting ‘tax’ on tobacco and ‘drink’ was also unethical but, anyhow he had been doing it for a long time and so he did not mind collecting additional revenue by this dirty business as well.