of economy, though it certainly does not tend to unlimited enrichment even as much as agriculture.768 However, he should be given credit of being a forerunner of the modern humanitarian economy, which insists that the final goal of all economics should be proper consumption, and that acquisition must be relegated to its true place as a means, the supreme end being human welfare.769
# POPULATION
Aristotle exhibits an interest in the problem of population in relation to subsistence in his criticism of Plato for limiting the amount of property and making it indivisible, while failing to provide against a too high birth-rate.770 He states the principle that, if property is to be limited, there must be a corresponding limitation on the increase of population,771 and that the let-alone policy must be followed by increased poverty.772 He therefore criticizes the Spartan law, for encouraging the largest possible families.773 It is evident, however, that, as in the case of Plato, his interest in the problem is prompted chiefly by a moral and political motive. It arises merely from his desire to limit individual acquisition, in a small state, artificially constructed, and is to him in no sense a question of world food-supply.774
# DISTRIBUTION
In the Ethics passage discussed above,775 Aristotle approaches a scientific theory of distribution. He observes that just distribution will be a mean between two extremes of unfairness.776 Unlike some moderns, however, he realizes that this will not mean equal shares for all. There must be the same ratio between the persons, or services, and the things.777 In the “mutual exchange of services,” the law must be proportional requital.778 In other words, each should receive an equivalent to what he contributes.779 Distribution must thus proceed according to a certain standard of worth