Money & investing

The Art of Money Getting by P. T. Barnum: Free Ebook, 20 Rules Summarised (2026)

By TopFreeBooks · Published · Updated · 11 min read

Illustrated cover in TopFreeBooks navy: a red and white striped circus tent with a small flag, a stack of gold coins and a small notebook, with the title The Art of Money Getting: Free Ebook and Summary

The Art of Money Getting began as a lecture that P. T. Barnum, the American showman, gave to a packed St. James' Hall in London in December 1858, at a time when he was paying off a business collapse of his own. The printed version is short, about 13,500 words, and reads like a list of "golden rules" for earning money and, harder, keeping it. Some of it is pure common sense that people still ignore: spend less than you earn, avoid debt, learn your trade, treat customers well, stay honest. Some of it shows its age. A note before you read the original: the full text has a few dated passages that we do not repeat here beyond short quotes, including a dialect joke, a line about opium, and his views on interest and on the lottery. We flag them in What has aged badly. The book is in the public domain and free on Project Gutenberg. Below: where to get a legal copy, all 20 rules in one table, the lessons that still work and the parts to read with care.

Key facts

Book
The Art of Money Getting, or Golden Rules for Making Money, by P. T. Barnum (1810-1891)
Origin
A lecture first given in London on 29 December 1858
Free source
Project Gutenberg #8581, no signup
Formats
EPUB3 (about 112 kB), Kindle, plain text, HTML
Length
An opening on saving and health + 20 short rules, about 13,500 words (about an hour)
Licence
Public domain (author died 1891)

How we checked these are free and legal

On 2 November 2026 we downloaded the Project Gutenberg edition (#8581, plain text), checked its licence page and listed formats, read the whole text and searched it to confirm every rule heading and quotation below. The lecture's history comes from Barnum's own account in chapter 31 of his memoir Struggles and Triumphs (Standard Ebooks edition). Many sites date the printed book to 1880, but we could not find a reliable source for the first printing, so this post and our book page date the lecture (1858) instead.

Is The Art of Money Getting free and legal to download?

Yes. Barnum died in 1891, so his writing has been in the public domain for a long time in the USA, the UK, the European Union, Malaysia and the rest of the world. Project Gutenberg has offered the text free since 2005, and our book page, The Art of Money Getting, links straight to that copy.

Paid editions often add a new foreword, summaries or modern rewording. Those additions can be copyrighted even though Barnum's words are not, so a "free PDF" of a modern edition on a file-sharing site is not a legal copy. The Gutenberg text is the original.

How to read it free: EPUB, Kindle or PDF

On the Gutenberg page, choose EPUB3 for Apple Books, Google Play Books, Kobo and most reading apps; it is about 112 kB and downloads instantly. For a Kindle, download the EPUB3 and send it with Amazon's Send to Kindle, or pick one of the Kindle files. Gutenberg does not list a PDF, but you can open the HTML version and use Print > Save as PDF in your browser.

The plain-text file (94 kB) is also easy to read on a phone in any notes app.

Why a showman lectured on money

By the late 1850s Barnum was famous for his American Museum, General Tom Thumb and Jenny Lind's concert tour, and he was in deep financial trouble from what he called his "clock complications". In Struggles and Triumphs he writes that American friends in London suggested the lecture, and that he joked he was better qualified to speak on "The Art of Money Losing". The talk was heavily advertised ("a feature I never neglected"), filled St. James' Hall on the evening of 29 December 1858, and he says he gave it nearly one hundred times around England during 1859.

That background matters when you read it. This is not a theory of investing from a banker. It is a business owner's checklist, written by someone who had just learned the cost of signing for other people's debts.

Before the rules: saving and health

The lecture opens with Benjamin Franklin's line that the road to wealth is "as plain as the road to the mill": spend less than you earn. Barnum then attacks "mistaken economy", people who save candle-ends but waste money elsewhere. "Economy is not meanness," he says, and "True economy consists in always making the income exceed the out-go."

His cure is a home-made expense book: write down every expense for a while, in one column for necessities or comforts and one for luxuries, and look at the totals. Then he turns to health, arguing that tobacco and drink cost money and judgement: "To make money, requires a clear brain."

All 20 of Barnum's rules in one table

The rule headings below are exactly as printed in the Gutenberg text (spelling included). The one-line summaries are ours.

#RuleWhat Barnum means
1Don't mistake your vocationChoose work that suits your tastes and abilities, not the job your parents picked for you.
2Select the right locationA good business in the wrong place still fails; go where the customers are.
3Avoid debt"There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt." He excuses only trade credit and buying something that will pay for itself.
4PersevereOnce you are sure you are on the right path, keep going through the hard years.
5Whatever you do, do it with all your might"Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well." Half-done work keeps people poor.
6Depend upon your own personal exertions"The eye of the employer is often worth more than the hands of a dozen employees." Know your own business in detail.
7Use the best toolsHire good people, keep them and let their experience grow.
8Don't get above your businessDo not refuse ordinary work while you wait for the perfect opportunity or for capital.
9Learn something usefulEvery child should learn a trade or profession to fall back on when fortunes change.
10Let hope predominate, but be not too visionaryOptimism is good; jumping from one sure-thing scheme to another is not.
11Do not scatter your powers"A constant hammering on one nail will generally drive it home at last."
12Be systematicA time and a place for everything; the systematic man does twice as much "with half the trouble".
13Read the newspapers"He who is without a newspaper is cut off from his species." Stay informed about your trade.
14Beware of "outside operations"Successful people lose fortunes in grand speculations far from the business they understand.
15Don't indorse without securityNever guarantee another person's debt for more than you can afford to lose, family included.
16Advertise your businessSell genuine goods, then tell people about them, and keep at it. A sign reading "Don't read the other side" made everyone read it.
17Be polite and kind to your customers"Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business."
18Be charitableGiving is a duty and a pleasure, and "the liberal man will command patronage".
19Don't blab"Say nothing about your profits, your hopes, your expectations, your intentions."
20Preserve your integrity"It is more precious than diamonds or rubies." Dishonest money is the hardest money to make and keep.

Five lessons that still work

1. Track your spending before you try to cut it. Barnum's two-column expense book is a budget app on paper. Most people who say they "know all about economy", in his words, have never written down where the money goes.

2. Treat consumer debt as a trap. He separates borrowing to buy clothes or comforts ("working for a dead horse") from credit used in trade. The line still holds: debt for things that lose value keeps you poor. A note for readers who avoid riba: Barnum's exception for credit "in trade" does not make interest acceptable. If trade credit carries interest, it is still riba; Islamic trade finance uses structures such as murabahah (a sale at an agreed, fixed price) instead.

3. Stay with what you understand. Rules 11 and 14 together are a warning against chasing tips, hot schemes and businesses you know nothing about, which is still how many people lose savings, from get-rich-quick offers to investment scams.

4. Be careful about guaranteeing loans. Rule 15 came from bitter experience. Before you sign as a guarantor for anyone, assume you may have to pay the whole amount.

5. Reputation is an asset. Rules 16 to 20 are one idea: good products, steady advertising, polite service and honesty bring customers back. As he put it, "the most difficult thing in life is to make money dishonestly".

What has aged badly (read it with care)

Interest is the engine of his savings advice. Barnum says money "placed at interest" keeps growing (he jokes that Connecticut's "rich old Puritans" woke up richer on Monday because their money "placed at interest had worked faithfully for them all day Sunday"), and "Money is in some respects like fire; it is a very excellent servant but a terrible master." Readers who avoid interest (riba) for religious reasons can keep the principle (save, and make savings work) and use options that fit their beliefs, such as profit-sharing, trade or Shariah-compliant funds.

Some advice is harsh or dated. He repeats a Rothschild maxim, "Never have anything to do with an unlucky man or place", which can read as writing off people who have simply had bad luck. The lecture is addressed mainly to young men and their sons, although it opens by saying "any person of either sex" can find work. The closing claim that "money-getters are the benefactors of our race" is a showman's flourish, not a fact.

Some passages lean on the ethnic stereotypes of his day. Two anecdotes are stage-Irish jokes: a hotel porter, "'Boots,' the Irishman", called "Pat", who says "I know all about it, sure, but I never did it", and an "Irish pilot" who boasts "Sure and I knows every rock in the channel" just before the ship hits one. He also compares drinking to "the smoking of opium by the Chinese". Read these as period prejudice, not wisdom.

Two smaller points. His savings advice assumes money earning interest, which not every reader will use. And he uses buying "a ticket in the lottery" as an image of money that comes easily and goes just as fast; it is a figure of speech, not advice to gamble.

And the business world has changed: newspapers, handbills and shop signs are now search, social media and reviews. The principles carry over; the examples are 19th-century ones.

Who should read it, and what to read next

Read it if you run or plan a small business, or if you want a short, lively push on saving and avoiding debt. It takes about an hour. For the full story behind the lecture, Barnum's memoir Struggles and Triumphs tells it in his own words, and Franklin's The Way to Wealth, which Barnum quotes, is the 18th-century original of the same advice. Every book below is free and legal on TopFreeBooks.

Want to put the ideas to work in Malaysia? DuitMap lists 100+ ways to make money in Malaysia (DuitMap), from side hustles to government schemes.

The books

More on this topic: Self-improvement shelf.

Official sources (checked 2 Nov 2026)

Questions

Is The Art of Money Getting free to read?

Yes. P. T. Barnum died in 1891, so the text is in the public domain. Project Gutenberg (#8581) offers it free as EPUB, Kindle, HTML and plain text with no signup.

Is there a free PDF of The Art of Money Getting?

Project Gutenberg does not list a PDF, but you can open its HTML version and use Print > Save as PDF. Avoid PDFs of modern editions on file-sharing sites, because their added introductions and notes can be copyrighted.

When was The Art of Money Getting written?

It started as a lecture Barnum first gave at St. James' Hall, London, on 29 December 1858, and he says he delivered it nearly one hundred times in England during 1859. Many sites date the printed book to 1880; we could not confirm the first printing.

What are the golden rules in The Art of Money Getting?

There are 20, from "Don't mistake your vocation" and "Avoid debt" to "Advertise your business", "Don't blab" and "Preserve your integrity". Before them, Barnum explains saving (spend less than you earn) and why health and a clear head matter.

How long does it take to read?

About an hour for most readers. The text is about 13,500 words: an opening on saving and health, then 20 short rules.

Is The Art of Money Getting still useful today?

The core advice on budgeting, avoiding consumer debt, sticking to what you know, not guaranteeing loans and treating customers honestly still works. Its reliance on interest, some harsh maxims and its 19th-century examples need a modern eye.

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General information only. Public-domain status is for the USA, so check your own country. We never host files; every link goes to the official source.