Benjamin Franklin — "The way to wealth is as short as the way to market."
The way to wealth is as short as the way to market.
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More from Benjamin Franklin
"Contentment makes poor men rich, discontent makes rich men poor."
"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning."
"If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself."
"For every pound of sand you eat, another shilling's yours to keep."
"He that has a wife and children, has given hostages to fortune."
About Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Polymath Founding Father, diplomat, and Poor Richard's Almanack author who helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Closely associated with John Adams (fellow Founder, Massachusetts statesman) and Thomas Jefferson (fellow Declaration drafter). For an intellectual contrast, see Thomas Hutchinson, last royal governor of colonial Massachusetts — Franklin leaked Hutchinson's loyalist correspondence to Boston in 1772 to inflame revolutionary sentiment — Hutchinson represented the colonial-aristocrat crown-loyalty that Franklin's revolution was organized to dismantle.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Wealth is not distant or complicated — it is as familiar and direct as the routine walk to the marketplace. Franklin argues that building prosperity requires no secret knowledge or special privilege, only the same steady, practical effort anyone uses for ordinary commerce. Consistent work, thrift, and engagement in trade are the short, well-worn path to financial success, available to anyone willing to take it.
Relevance to Benjamin Franklin
Franklin began as a poor printer's apprentice and became one of colonial America's wealthiest self-made men through trade, publishing, and commerce. He spent 26 years publishing Poor Richard's Almanack, distilling market-wisdom into pithy sayings for common readers. He literally understood the market — as printer, newspaper owner, and merchant — and believed economic mobility was earned through disciplined industry and frugality, virtues he practiced and preached throughout his entire life.
The era
In 18th-century colonial America, the weekly market was the economic heartbeat of every town — a routine, familiar obligation for farmers, craftsmen, and tradespeople alike. Wealth was increasingly tied to mercantile commerce rather than inherited land, and a rising artisan middle class was discovering that trade could lift ordinary people. Franklin's era celebrated the self-made man, and this aphorism validated that prosperity was a civic, democratic possibility rather than an aristocratic birthright.
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