By Dr Benjamin Franklin and Dr Agon Fly

In 1758 Benjamin Franklin published the final annual installment of Poor Richard’s Almanac. As a preface to this final edition he wrote The Way to Wealth and introduced Father Abraham as the main character in the tale.

Father Abraham embodied the financial wisdom that “Poor” Richard Saunders – Ben Franklin in disguise – incorporated in the 25 years during which the almanac was a staple on the bookshelves and kitchen tables of colonial America.

In 2008, on the sesquicentennial of that event, Dr Agon Fly is bringing this classic book about money back to life. The money wisdom that Dr. Benjamin Franklin captured in The Way to Wealth is timeless; however, the vernacular of 1758 sometimes obscures the meaning for today’s economy and for the   personal economies of 21^st Century Americans.

Dr Agon Fly offers clarification and corrects archaic words and spellings to help the reader move easily through the story and capture the essence of the messages about money, saving, investing, debt, taxes and a variety of other financial fundamentals.

In addition, Dr Agon Fly provides commentary on Father Abraham’s insights in 21^st Century English and invested with the knowledge of financial products and services that were not available to Americans in 1758.

Dr Agon Fly’s comments are indented and italicized to set them apart from the main text.

Read on…

Introduction by Benjamin Franklin – Commentary by Dr Agon Fly

In 1732 I first published my Almanac under the name of Richard Saunders; it was continued by me about twenty-five years, and commonly called Poor Richard’s Almanac. I endeavored[i] to make it both entertaining and useful, and it accordingly came to be in such demand, that I reaped considerable profit from it, vending annually near ten thousand.

Think about that! That’s about ½ of 1% of the total population as subscribers and about 2% of the total population based on family size. In today’s terms, that would be over 6 million subscribers. Any publisher or writer – even J. K. Rowling – would be pleased with that. Imagine the influence this simple publication had on the thinking and behavior of early America

And observing that it was generally read, (scarce any neighborhood[ii] in the province being without it,) I considered it as a proper vehicle for conveying instruction among the common people, who bought scarcely any other books.

In today’s world of mass communication – TV, cell phones that are more powerful than the computers of just ten years ago, print on demand publishing and – more than anything else – the internet, is it any wonder that Americans are going in dozens of different financial directions.

 I therefore filled all the little spaces, that occurred between the remarkable days in the Calendar, with proverbial sentences, chiefly such as inculcated industry and frugality, as the means of procuring wealth, and thereby securing virtue; it being more difficult for a man in want to act always honestly, as (to use here one of those proverbs) “It is hard for an empty sack to stand upright.”

Ben Franklin wrote pithy sayings and motivated early Americans to work hard and save money so they could amass wealth and secure “virtue.” The amazing part of this is that it worked for the founding fathers and for many generations after them. It’s hard to be virtuous – have peace of mind and the freedom to serve our family, church, and country.

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