Chapter 17

50.Hippias Minor368 D, where he is presented as the jack of all trades. Cf.infrafor the antithetic attitude of Plato.

51.Orestes917-22;Supplices399-456, 238-45;Phoenissae535-51 (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.Orestes917 ff.; cf. also the noble character of the peasant (αὐτουργός) in theElectra, 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, andinfra. He puts worthy sentiments into the mouths of slaves and dresses his nobles in rags.

54.Ion854; ἐν γάρ τι τοῦς δούλοισιν αἰσχύνην φέρει || τὀύνομα; frs. 828 (Phrixus), 515 (Melanippe) (Nauck);Helena730; 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.Medea230 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.

59.Thuc. i. 2.

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.infrafor 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.32ff., and notes; pp.47ff. and notes; pp.69f. and notes; pp.93ff. 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.

70.Rep.369 B-C.

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

72.Cf.Laws889 D-E, 709 B-D, and Robin,op. cit., pp. 224 f.; also the entire argument of theRepublicon justice.

73.Laws921B. The word is ἀξία.

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

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

76.Euthydemus280B-E, 281B, D, 288E-289A;Meno88D-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 toUnto 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.

78.Ibid.

79.Cf. above note andMun. 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’sLaws727A.

81.Cf.infrafor citations.

82.Cf. p.23and notes.

83.Laws697B, 631C, 728A, 870B;Apol.29D-E.

84.Apol.30B; alsoLaws743E;Gorg.451E; cf. Ruskin,Fors Clav., Lett. 70, 6 and 11 (Vol. XXVIII, 717), where he citesLaws726-728A, on the value of the soul. He also citesLaws742-743 andRep.416E (cf.Mun. Pul.[Vol. XVII, 89, 148]).

85.Laws743E.

86.831C-D. Ruskin (Crown of Wild Olive, 83, Vol. XVIII, 456 f.) citesCritias120E 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.Laws661B;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.infraunder 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 citesLaws736E;Aratra Pentelici, IV, 138 (Vol. XX, 295 f.) on money as the root of all evil, citingLaws705B.

92.Laws729A.

93.742D.

94.Rep.421D.

95.Laws742E, 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;Phaedo66C. Compare the modern doctrine that lasting peace is impossible under the present economic system.

98.Laws744D: διάστασις; also a basal idea of theRepublic.

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

100.Laws736E: καὶ πενίαν ἡγουμένους εἶναι μὴ τὸ τὴν οὐσίαν ἐλάττω ποιεῖν, ἀλλὸ τὸ τὴν ἀπληστίαν πλείω. Cf.infraon 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).

102.Laws634A.

103.Rep.329E-330A, 330D-331B; cf. also the prayer ofPhaedrus279C: τὸ δὲ χρυσοῦ πλῆθος εἴη μοι ὅσον μήτε ἅγειν δύναιτ᾽ ἄλλος ἢ ὁ σώφρων;Laws679B;Gorg.477E: τίς οὖν τέχνη πενίας ἀππαλλάττει; οὐ χρηματιστική; cf. also 452C.

104.Cf. preceding notes; alsoRep.421D-E;Laws744D.

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

106.Plato also emphasizes this,Laws743E, 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.InMun. 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. alsoMun. Pul., II, 54 (Vol. XVII, 178 f.).

110.Discussed above.

111.Cf.Pol.281D-283A, for an excellent description of the weaving industry; alsoCrat.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. alsoPhaedo99A-B;Phileb.27A;Timaeus46C-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 fromSophist.andPol.; cf. Robin,op. cit., pp. 231 f.

115.Rep.371C.

116.Laws918B-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.Laws743D 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.

119.Pol.279C.

120.Cf.infraand 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 thedoctrine philosophiqueand thedoctrine 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.infrafor further notice of this problem.

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

123.Laws743D, but he would even limit this, so that it may not become a sordid occupation.

124.Laws760E-761C, 763D. Ruskin cites this inFors 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.Laws742C (κεφάλαιον), andinfra, 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.infraon 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.Laws842D, 806D-E, 741E, 846D, 919D.

132.847A.

133.743D.

134.Charm.163A-C.

135.Gorg.517D-518E.

136.292E, 289E-290A.

137.Ibid.300E.

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

139.Laws846D, 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, citingLaws831.

140.Laws743D. 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.infrafor 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 theLaws.

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;Laws779A, 807A-E, 808C. The passages in theLawsapply 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.

148.Rep.433A.

149.Rep.552A, C, 564E; cf.Laws901A, where he refers to the passage in Hesiod’sErga304: 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.Laws918B-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;Laws741E);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 PlatoAlc.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;Laws846E-847A. Cf.infraon the unfair interpretation ofRep.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. furtherWealth of Nations, II, Intro.

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

164.Rep.370C-D.

165.371C.

166.371B;Laws918B.

167.Rep.370E-371A. In theLaws, 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 theLaws, the artisans and traders are non-citizens (846D, 847A, 918B-C), not because of prejudice primarily, but for the sake of better government.

170.Rep.374B-E.

171.395A-B; cf. Adam’s note to 395A, explainingSympos.223D, where Plato asserts the opposite. He thinks Plato is speaking ideally in theRepublicpassage, 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.

173.Rep.397E-398A.

174.443C-D; cf. NettleshipLectures on the Republic of Plato, p. 71.

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