He is fit because he had been a politician in Italy for a long time while many Italian princes came and went away due to their mistakes. He has seen them all and worked with many and has noticed patterns and why some princes succeed while others fail.
The consumer goods may go to the troops instead of the citizens. For example, during World War II, citizens were encouraged to plant victory gardens- if more people grew their own vegetables, more canned goods could be given to soldiers.
The people of the Indus Valley. Some of them were farmers. They grew crops like barley, peas, wheat, dates, and melons. The farms were not just for , some grew cotton and raised sheep, pigs, and cattle. Every town had its own storage building to hold what that town needed.
