Politics   

barter is not part of the wealth-getting art and is not contrary to
nature, but is needed for the satisfaction of men's natural wants. The
other or more complex form of exchange grew, as might have been
inferred, out of the simpler. When the inhabitants of one country
became more dependent on those of another, and they imported what they
needed, and exported what they had too much of, money necessarily came
into use. For the various necessaries of life are not easily carried
about, and hence men agreed to employ in their dealings with each
other something which was intrinsically useful and easily applicable
to the purposes of life, for example, iron, silver, and the like. Of
this the value was at first measured simply by size and weight, but in
process of time they put a stamp upon it, to save the trouble of
weighing and to mark the value.
When the use of coin had once been discovered, out of the barter of
necessary articles arose the other art of wealth getting, namely,
retail trade; which was at first probably a simple matter, but became
more complicated as soon as men learned by experience whence and by
what exchanges the greatest profit might be made. Originating in the
use of coin, the art of getting wealth is generally thought to be
chiefly concerned with it, and to be the art which produces riches and
wealth; having to consider how they may be accumulated. Indeed, riches
is assumed by many to be only a quantity of coin, because the arts of
getting wealth and retail trade are concerned with coin. Others
maintain that coined money is a mere sham, a thing not natural, but
conventional only, because, if the users substitute another commodity
for it, it is worthless, and because it is not useful as a means to
any of the necessities of life, and, indeed, he who is rich in coin
may often be in want of necessary food. But how can that be wealth of
which a man may have a great abundance and yet perish with hunger,
like Midas in the fable, whose insatiable prayer turned everything
that was set before him into gold?
Hence men seek after a better notion of riches and of the art of
getting wealth than the mere acquisition of coin, and they are right.
For natural riches and the natural art of wealth-getting are a
different thing; in their true form they are part of the management of
a household; whereas retail trade is the art of producing wealth, not
in every way, but by exchange. And it is thought to be concerned with
coin; for coin is the unit of exchange and the measure or limit of it.
And there is no bound to the riches which spring from this art of
wealth getting. As in the art of medicine there is no limit to the
pursuit of health, and as in the other arts there is no limit to the
pursuit of their several ends, for they aim at accomplishing their
ends to the uttermost (but of the means there is a limit, for the end
is always the limit), so, too, in this art of wealth-getting there is
no limit of the end, which is riches of the spurious kind, and the
acquisition of wealth. But the art of wealth-getting which consists in
household management, on the other hand, has a limit; the unlimited
acquisition of wealth is not its business. And, therefore, in one
point of view, all riches must have a limit; nevertheless, as a matter
of fact, we find the opposite to be the case; for all getters of
wealth increase their hoard of coin without limit. The source of the
confusion is the near connection between the two kinds of
wealth-getting; in either, the instrument is the same, although the
use is different, and so they pass into one another; for each is a use
of the same property, but with a difference: accumulation is the end
in the one case, but there is a further end in the other. Hence some
persons are led to believe that getting wealth is the object of
household management, and the whole idea of their lives is that they
ought either to increase their money without limit, or at any rate not
to lose it. The origin of this disposition in men is that they are
intent upon living only, and not upon living well; and, as their
desires are unlimited they also desire that the means of gratifying
them should be without limit. Those who do aim at a good life seek the
means of obtaining bodily pleasures; and, since the enjoyment of these