Politics   

modes of life are similarly combined in any way which the needs of men
may require. Property, in the sense of a bare livelihood, seems to be
given by nature herself to all, both when they are first born, and
when they are grown up. For some animals bring forth, together with
their offspring, so much food as will last until they are able to
supply themselves; of this the vermiparous or oviparous animals are an
instance; and the viviparous animals have up to a certain time a
supply of food for their young in themselves, which is called milk. In
like manner we may infer that, after the birth of animals, plants
exist for their sake, and that the other animals exist for the sake of
man, the tame for use and food, the wild, if not all at least the
greater part of them, for food, and for the provision of clothing and
various instruments. Now if nature makes nothing incomplete, and
nothing in vain, the inference must be that she has made all animals
for the sake of man. And so, in one point of view, the art of war is a
natural art of acquisition, for the art of acquisition includes
hunting, an art which we ought to practice against wild beasts, and
against men who, though intended by nature to be governed, will not
submit; for war of such a kind is naturally just.
Of the art of acquisition then there is one kind which by nature is a
part of the management of a household, in so far as the art of
household management must either find ready to hand, or itself
provide, such things necessary to life, and useful for the community
of the family or state, as can be stored. They are the elements of
true riches; for the amount of property which is needed for a good
life is not unlimited, although Solon in one of his poems says that
"No bound to riches has been fixed for man. "
But there is a boundary fixed, just as there is in the other arts; for
the instruments of any art are never unlimited, either in number or
size, and riches may be defined as a number of instruments to be used
in a household or in a state. And so we see that there is a natural
art of acquisition which is practiced by managers of households and by
statesmen, and what is the reason of this.
Part IX
There is another variety of the art of acquisition which is commonly
and rightly called an art of wealth-getting, and has in fact suggested
the notion that riches and property have no limit. Being nearly
connected with the preceding, it is often identified with it. But
though they are not very different, neither are they the same. The
kind already described is given by nature, the other is gained by
experience and art.
Let us begin our discussion of the question with the following
considerations:
Of everything which we possess there are two uses: both belong to the
thing as such, but not in the same manner, for one is the proper, and
the other the improper or secondary use of it. For example, a shoe is
used for wear, and is used for exchange; both are uses of the shoe. He
who gives a shoe in exchange for money or food to him who wants one,
does indeed use the shoe as a shoe, but this is not its proper or
primary purpose, for a shoe is not made to be an object of barter. The
same may be said of all possessions, for the art of exchange extends
to all of them, and it arises at first from what is natural, from the
circumstance that some have too little, others too much. Hence we may
infer that retail trade is not a natural part of the art of getting
wealth; had it been so, men would have ceased to exchange when they
had enough. In the first community, indeed, which is the family, this
art is obviously of no use, but it begins to be useful when the
society increases. For the members of the family originally had all
things in common; later, when the family divided into parts, the parts
shared in many things, and different parts in different things, which
they had to give in exchange for what they wanted, a kind of barter
which is still practiced among barbarous nations who exchange with one
another the necessaries of life and nothing more; giving and receiving
wine, for example, in exchange for coin, and the like. This sort of