The Project Gutenberg eBook of A History of Greek Economic Thought, by Albert Augustus Trever

50. Hippias Minor 368 D, where he is presented as the jack of all trades. Cf. infra for the antithetic attitude of Plato.

51. Orestes 917-22; Supplices 399-456, 238-45; Phoenissae 535-51 (Dindorf), cited by Dümmler, Proleg. zu Platons Staat (1891), to show that there are traces of a political treatise of the school of Antiphon in Euripides. Cf. Barker, op. cit., p. 25 and note.

52. Orestes 917 ff.; cf. also the noble character of the peasant (αὐτουργός) in the Electra, who is a noble soul (252 f.), and who speaks the prologue, though he is only a secondary person in the play. Cf. also 367-82.

53. Fr. 345 (Nauck), the unjust man is ignoble (δυσγενής), though better born than Zeus; frs. 54 (Alex.), 514 (Melanippe), 8 (Electra); cf. n. 1 above, and infra. He puts worthy sentiments into the mouths of slaves and dresses his nobles in rags.

54. Ion 854; ἐν γάρ τι τοῦς δούλοισιν αἰσχύνην φέρει || τὀύνομα; frs. 828 (Phrixus), 515 (Melanippe) (Nauck); Helena 730; cf. Decharme, Euripide et l’esprit de son théâtre, pp. 162 ff.

55. His finest portrayals are noble women. He was no woman-hater, but freely presented both sides of female character. Cf. Medea 230 ff. and other such passages complaining of woman’s lot; fr. 655 (Protes.), advocating community of wives. Cf., however, Decharme, op. cit., 133 ff.

56. Cf. Nauck, frs. 642 (Polyidus), 55, 56 (Alex.), 95 (Alcmene), 143 (Andromeda), 326 and 328 (Danae); cf. Decharme, op. cit., pp. 163 ff. and notes; Dobbs, op. cit., p. 78, n. 5.

57. Op. cit., p. 7: “Ich auch in volkswirtschaftlicher Beziehung von keinen Neuern mehr als von ihm gelernt habe.” Cf. Kautz, op. cit., pp. 123 ff.

58. Thuc. ii. 40. 1; i. 70. 8; ii. 40. 2; etc.

60. Thucydides Mythhistoricus (1907); cf. Shorey’s critical review, Dial, July-December, 1907, pp. 202 ff.; also W. Lamb, Clio Enthroned (1914), especially pp. 34-67. Lamb’s citations of Thucydides (pp. 35 f.), present sufficient evidence of the Greek historian’s economic insight.

61. Op. cit., pp. 18 f.

62. “Die wirtschaftliche Entwickelung des Alterthums,” Kleine Schriften, 1910; cf. also Beloch, Zeitschr. f. Socialwiss., II, 21 ff.; “Griechische Geschichte,” ibid.; Poehlmann, Geschichte des antiken Socialismus und Kommunismus, I (2d ed., 1912, Geschichte der sozialen Frage und des Socialismus in der antiken Welt). Citations from Poehlmann throughout the book are to this work unless otherwise specified. He exaggerates the development of capitalism. Meyer and Beloch are also somewhat misleading in their use of the modern terms for Greek conditions. Francotte (L’Industrie dans la Grèce ancienne [1900]) is more conservative. For the older extreme conservative view, cf. the works of Rodbertus and Bücher. Cf. infra for further notice of the subject.

63. Haney, op. cit., p. 17.

64. For a full discussion of the Greek attitude toward labor, with citations from ancient and modern authors, cf. infra, p. 29, n. 4; pp. 32 ff., and notes; pp. 47 ff. and notes; pp. 69 f. and notes; pp. 93 ff. and notes.

65. Pol. i. 8. 1256b2.

66. Haney, op. cit., p. 17.

67. Emphasized by Poehlmann, op. cit., I, 593 f. Our citations will always be from the second edition, 1912.

68. To judge by Xen. Mem., this might have been said of Socrates had he been a writer.

69. Robin (Platon et la science sociale, p. 239) makes him the forerunner of the triple division of economics—production, exchange, distribution—but this is hardly warranted.

71. Pol. i. chap. 2. But in the Laws, Plato’s theory of origins is more social, tracing society back to clan and family.

72. Cf. Laws 889 D-E, 709 B-D, and Robin, op. cit., pp. 224 f.; also the entire argument of the Republic on justice.

73. Laws 921B. The word is ἀξία.

74. Ibid.: γιγνώσκει γὰρ ὅγε δημιουργὸς τὴν ἀξίαν.

75. Cf. p. 15, n. 7 above.

76. Euthydemus 280B-E, 281B, D, 288E-289A; Meno 88D-E.

77. Unto This Last, IV, 62: “Useful articles that we can use”; 64: “Wealth is the possession of the valuable by the valiant” (Vol. XVII, 86 ff.); Fors Clavigera, Letter 70 (Vol. XXVIII, 712 ff.); Munera Pulveris, I, 14 (Vol. XVII, 154); II, 35 (Vol. XVII, 166 f.). Plato’s economic ideas greatly influenced Ruskin. Cf. infra, p. 149, n. 2. Cf. also Vol. XXXVIII, 112; XXXIX, 411, of Ruskin. He says, in the preface to Unto This Last (Vols. XVII, XVIII), that his “real purpose is to give ... a logical definition of wealth,” which has “often been given incidentally in good Greek by Plato and Xenophon.” Cf. ibid., n. 1, for other such references.

79. Cf. above note and Mun. Pul., II, 30, notes; Fors Clav., Letter 70, 3 (Vol. XXVII, 713), the “good things.”

80. Fors Clav., Lett. 70, 8 f. (Vol. XXVIII, 718 ff.), where he refers to Plato’s Laws 727A.

81. Cf. infra for citations.

82. Cf. p. 23 and notes.

83. Laws 697B, 631C, 728A, 870B; Apol. 29D-E.

84. Apol. 30B; also Laws 743E; Gorg. 451E; cf. Ruskin, Fors Clav., Lett. 70, 6 and 11 (Vol. XXVIII, 717), where he cites Laws 726-728A, on the value of the soul. He also cites Laws 742-743 and Rep. 416E (cf. Mun. Pul. [Vol. XVII, 89, 148]).

86. 831C-D. Ruskin (Crown of Wild Olive, 83, Vol. XVIII, 456 f.) cites Critias 120E ff., in urging the same idea. He also cites Plato’s myth of the metals, Rep. 416E, in similar vein (Mun. Pul., III, 89, Vol. XVII, 211).

87. 631C cited by Ruskin, Mun. Pul., III, 88 (Vol. XVII, 210).

88. 661A, 661B; Rep. 331A-B.

89. Laws 661B; Hipp. Maj. 290D; Menex. 246E.

90. Mun. Pul., II, 35 ff.; he refers to both Xenophon and Plato as being right on this point. Cf. Fors. Clav., I, 8 (Vol. XXVII, 122); Unto This Last, 64 (Vol. XVII, 89).

91. Rep. 550D, 373D: ἐὰν καὶ ἐκεῖνοι ἀφῶσιν αὑτοὺς ἐπὶ χρημάτων κτῆσιν ἄπειρον ὑπερβάντες τὸν τῶν ἀναγκαίων ὄρον. On ἄπειρος cf. infra under Aristotle. Cf. Dobbs, op. cit., pp. 202 f. and note, on the evil results of excessive wealth and poverty in the Greece of that age. Like Ruskin, Mun. Pul., VI, 153 and note (Vol. XVII, 277), who cites Laws 736E; Aratra Pentelici, IV, 138 (Vol. XX, 295 f.) on money as the root of all evil, citing Laws 705B.

95. Laws 742E, especially πλουσίους δ᾽ αὒ σφόδρα καὶ ἀγαθοὺς ἀδύνατον. For the modern application of this doctrine, cf. infra; cf. also 743A, C; Rep. 550E, 551A.

96. Rep. 422; cf. 372E ff. on the φλεγμαίνουσα state.

97. 373E; Phaedo 66C. Compare the modern doctrine that lasting peace is impossible under the present economic system.

98. Laws 744D: διάστασις; also a basal idea of the Republic.

99. This is the spirit of the Republic throughout, but cf. especially 369C-374D, and p. 25, n. 7.

100. Laws 736E: καὶ πενίαν ἡγουμένους εἶναι μὴ τὸ τὴν οὐσίαν ἐλάττω ποιεῖν, ἀλλὸ τὸ τὴν ἀπληστίαν πλείω. Cf. infra on Xenophon for similar ideas. Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, chapter on “Everlasting Yea”: “The fraction of life can be increased in value not so much by increasing your numerator as by lessening your denominator.” Ruskin, Time and Tide, II, 5 ff. (Vol. XVII, 319 ff.); cf. 320, n. 1, for other references. Thoreau: “A man is wealthy in proportion to the number of things he can let alone”—an overemphasized truth.

101. So Socrates (Apol. 41E, 29D-E) and Jesus (Matt. 6:33).

103. Rep. 329E-330A, 330D-331B; cf. also the prayer of Phaedrus 279C: τὸ δὲ χρυσοῦ πλῆθος εἴη μοι ὅσον μήτε ἅγειν δύναιτ᾽ ἄλλος ἢ ὁ σώφρων; Laws 679B; Gorg. 477E: τίς οὖν τέχνη πενίας ἀππαλλάττει; οὐ χρηματιστική; cf. also 452C.

104. Cf. preceding notes; also Rep. 421D-E; Laws 744D.

105. Bonar (Philosophy and Political Economy, pp. 13 f.) criticizes Rep. 400-402 for not seeing that unlimited wealth is necessary for the realization of the highest art and beauty.

106. Plato also emphasizes this, Laws 743E, 870B: οὐ χρὴ πλουτεῖν ζητεῖν τὸν εὐδαίμονα ἐσόμενον, ἀλλὰ δικαίως πλουτεῖν καὶ σωφρόνως; 660E; though he implies that unlimited wealth is necessarily evil.

107. Rep. 552B-D; cf. Robin, op. cit., p. 243, n. 1, on κηφήν.

108. In Mun. Pul., III, 91 (Vol. XVII, 213), he makes Circe’s swine a type of false consumption; cf. Fors Clav., Letter 38 (Vol. XXVIII, 30 ff.); Mun. Pul., Pref., 16 (Vol. XVII, 139 f.); Queen of the Air, III, 124 ff. (Vol. XIX, 404 ff.); Pol. Econ. of Art, I, 48 ff. (Vol. XVI, 47 ff.); Unto This Last, IV, 76 (Vol. XVII, 102); Mill also attacked this idea.

109. Unto This Last, II, 40 (Vol. XVII, 56); cf. also Mun. Pul., II, 54 (Vol. XVII, 178 f.).

110. Discussed above.

111. Cf. Pol. 281D-283A, for an excellent description of the weaving industry; also Crat. 388C ff.; Phileb. 56B, on carpentry.

112. Pol. 287D-289B; cf. Espinas, op. cit., pp. 35 f.; “L’Art économie dans Platon,” Revue des Etudes Grecques, XXVII (1914), 106 ff.

113. Pol. 281D-E; cf. also Phaedo 99A-B; Phileb. 27A; Timaeus 46C-D.

114. Sophist. 219A-D. Bonar’s (op. cit., p. 20) criticism of this on the ground that learning may produce something new, while the arts may merely change the shape of things, takes Plato too seriously. We have here only a characteristic Platonic generalization. Cf. Shorey, Unity of Plato’s Thought (1903), p. 64, n. 500, on the foregoing passages from Sophist. and Pol.; cf. Robin, op. cit., pp. 231 f.

116. Laws 918B-C, especially πῶς γὰρ οὐκ εὐεργέτης πᾶς ὃς ἂν οὐσίαν χρημάτων ὡντινωνοῦν, ἀσύμμετρον οὔσαν καὶ ἀνώμαλον, ὁμαλήν τε καὶ σύμμετρον ἀπεργάζεται.

117. Cf. DuBois, Precis de l’histoire des doctrines économiques dans leurs rapports avec les faits et avec les institutions, pp. 45-47, comparing Plato and Aristotle on this point. Laws 743D and Plato’s attitude on agriculture (cf. infra) might seem to point the other way. Cf. infra, p. 41, nn. 7-10. Espinas (Revue des études Grecques, XXVII [1914], 247, n. 1) is extreme in calling him a physiocrat. The term would more nearly apply to Aristotle.

118. Ar. (Pol. vi [iv]. 1291a12-19) so interprets him, because he finds the origin of the state in physical needs (Rep. 369C ff.), but this is a carping criticism. Blanqui is hardly fair to Plato on this point (Histoire de l’économie politique en Europe, p. 88). Cf. above, p. 22, n. 4, on Plato’s other theory of origins.

120. Cf. infra and Poehlmann, op. cit., I, 574.

121. As we shall see, the third reason has been exaggerated for the philosophers. On the favorable attitude to labor at Athens, cf. V. Brants, Revue de l’instruction publique in Belg., XXVI (1883), 108 f., 100 f.; he distinguishes between the doctrine philosophique and the doctrine politique. So also Guiraud, La main-d’œuvre industrielle dans l’ancienne Grèce (1900), pp. 36-50; Zimmern, op. cit., pp. 382 ff., 256-72. For the older view of general prejudice against free labor in Greece, cf. Drumann, Arbeiter und Communisten in Griechenland u. Rom (1860), pp. 24 ff. Francotte (L’Industrie) takes the more conservative position. Cf. infra for further notice of this problem.

122. Hesiod Erga; Theog. 969-975, though even here it is opposed to commerce.

123. Laws 743D, but he would even limit this, so that it may not become a sordid occupation.

124. Laws 760E-761C, 763D. Ruskin cites this in Fors Clav.; cf. Vol. XXIX, 546.

125. Cf. pp. 19 f., and notes; cf. also p. 106, n. 1. The extensive commerce of Athens necessitated the presence of a comparatively large amount of money capital, and a large amount was also invested in slaves. For further notice, cf. infra, p. 68, nn. 8 ff., on the terms.

126. But cf. Laws 742C (κεφάλαιον), and infra, under Xenophon, on the terms for capital.

127. Cf. Rep. 552B, and p. 27. Kautz (op. cit., p. 119) overemphasizes this; cf. Souchon, op. cit., p. 91, n. 2, who observes, however, that Plato, by his insistence upon collectivism in landed property implies that “la terre est toujours un capital, et que la fortune mobilière ne l’est jamais.”

128. Cf. infra on money.

129. On the general attitude toward labor in Athens, cf. p. 30, n. 4. On Plato’s regard for the laborer, cf. infra, under distribution.

130. Rep. 590C, but only for him whose higher nature (τὸ τοῦ βελτίστου εἴδος) is naturally weak, though the implication is that this is characteristic of the artisans. Cf. Poehlmann, op. cit., II, 49 f.

131. Laws 842D, 806D-E, 741E, 846D, 919D.

134. Charm. 163A-C.

135. Gorg. 517D-518E.

136. 292E, 289E-290A.

138. Cf. Rep. 371C for a contrast in his attitude toward the two; cf. Bonar, op. cit., pp. 21 f.

139. Laws 846D, 847A. Ruskin (Fors Clav., Letter 82, 34 [Vol. XXIX, 253 f.]) contrasts the fevered leisure that results from extreme money-making with the true leisure, citing Laws 831.

140. Laws 743D. The aristocratic Greek feeling of independence against selling one’s powers to another, and the fact of the frank acceptance of slavery, by most contemporary thinkers, as the natural order, also exerted some unconscious influence.

141. Cf. infra for citations from Zeller, and Poehlmann’s able, but somewhat extreme, defense of Plato (op. cit., II, 36 ff.). He cites Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, V, I, Pt. 2, art. 2, in similar vein to Plato, on the ill-effects of mechanical labor, despite his undoubted interest in the industrial arts.

142. Francotte, L’Industrie, I, 246, in reference to the Laws.

143. Op. cit., p. 26, n. 2.

144. Eisenhart (Geschichte der Nationalökonomie, p. 5) also says that Plato calls “Volkswirtschaft gerade zu den Staat der Schweine.” Dietzel (“Beiträge zur Geschichte des Socialismus und des Kommunismus,” Zeitschrift für Literatur und Geschichte der Staatswissenschaften, p. 397, n. 1) criticizes both the foregoing.

145. Sympos. 209A; Phileb. 56C.

146. Protag. 321E.

147. Rep. 420E, 421C; Laws 779A, 807A-E, 808C. The passages in the Laws apply particularly to the work of the soldier and the citizen. Cf. Ruskin, Unto This Last, I, 22 (Vol. XVII, 40) for a similar idea that the function of the laborer is not primarily to draw his pay, but to do his work well.

149. Rep. 552A, C, 564E; cf. Laws 901A, where he refers to the passage in Hesiod’s Erga 304: κηφηνέσσι κοθούροις. Cf. p. 27, n. 1, above. Poehlmann (op. cit., II, 87 f.) points to Plato’s demand that woman be freed, so that the total number of free workers may be increased, but Plato is thinking only of the ruling class.

150. Laws 918B-919C, referring to retail trade; but if he could admit it for this, he surely could for the industries. Cf. Aristotle’s passage on liberal and illiberal work (Pol. 1337b5-22).

151. Mun. Pul., V, 105 and note (Vol. XVII, 234 f.), where he refers to Plato’s diminutive, ἄνθρωπίσκοι, as applied to laborers (Rep. 495C; Laws 741E); Time and Tide, 103 (Vol. XVII, 402), 127 (p. 423 and note); Crown of Wild Olive, 2 (Vol. XVIII, 388), on the furnace; Lectures on Art, IV, 123 (Vol. XX, 113); on the evil effects of arts needing fire, as iron-working, where Xen. Econ. iv. 2, 3 is cited. He makes frequent reference to the Greek attitude, e.g., Vol. XVIII, 241, 461, and above. But he was not absolutely opposed to machinery; cf. Cestus Aglaia, 33 for what is called the finest eulogy of a machine in English literature. He even anticipated the great future mechanical development (Mun. Pul., 17).

152. Stones of Venice (Vol. X, 201); cf. also IV, 6 (Vol. XI, 202 f.), where he cites Plato Alc. I. 129.

153. Fors. Clav., VII, 9 (Vol. XIX, 230).

154. Cf. Vol. XXVII, Intro., p. lxv.

155. Rep. 370A-C and many other passages. Cf. infra; Laws 846E-847A. Cf. infra on the unfair interpretation of Rep. 421A by Zeller and others. Plato implies by the passage merely that specialization is more important for the statesman than for the cobbler (421C).

156. Rep. 369C. Adam Smith makes this the basal fact of exchange (Wealth of Nations, I, ii).

157. Rep. 370C: πλείω τε ἕκαστα γίγνεται καὶ κάλλιον καὶ ρᾷον, ὅταν ἑἶς ἓν κατὰ φύσιν, καὶ ἐν καιρῷ σχολὴν τῶν ἄλλων ἄγων, πράττῃ. He first states the principle less plausibly as a literary device, Rep. 369C; cf. 433A.

158. Rep. 370C, B.

159. Op. cit., I, chap. ii.

160. So Herbert Spencer, Principles of Sociology (1900), III, 342-49. Cf. also Ruskin, Fors Clav., IV, 15 (Vol. XXVIII, 160).

161. Rep. 370B-C, 374B-E.

162. Op. cit., I, chap. 1. Plato implies the increase in wealth. Haney (op. cit., p. 41) observes that Plato thought especially of the advantages of division of labor to the state, rather than to the individual. Cf. further Wealth of Nations, II, Intro.

163. Rep. 370C-371B; cf. DuBois, op. cit., p. 37.

166. 371B; Laws 918B.

167. Rep. 370E-371A. In the Laws, he does not extend the principle to international trade. Cf. Bonar, op. cit., p. 17.

168. Poehlmann (op. cit., II, 185 f.) notes a contradiction between Plato’s insistence upon the division of labor and his desire for the simple life. But the philosopher is aware of this, and knows that the simpler ideal is impossible. Cf. V. Brants, Revue de l’instr. pub. en Belg., XXVI (1883), 102-4, on the fact of the extensive division of labor in Athenian industry.

169. δεμιουργοὺς ἐλευθερίας; Rep. 395C, 434A-D; cf. also 420B-421B. In the Laws, the artisans and traders are non-citizens (846D, 847A, 918B-C), not because of prejudice primarily, but for the sake of better government.

171. 395A-B; cf. Adam’s note to 395A, explaining Sympos. 223D, where Plato asserts the opposite. He thinks Plato is speaking ideally in the Republic passage, but here of the actual fact. But cf. Shorey, Unity, etc., p. 78, n. 597.

172. Rep. 433A-B, D, 434A-D, 432A, 443-444A, 396D-E; Charm. 161E. In his broad application of the law, he has advanced beyond Adam Smith. Cf. Souchon, op. cit., p. 81 and n. 2.