The most distinctive point about the doctrine of the first book is its separation of οἰκονομική from πολιτική as a special science.879 The author agrees with Aristotle, however, that it is the function of economics both to acquire and to use, though without his specific limitations upon acquisition.880 He distinguishes four forms of economy—acquiring, guarding, using, and arranging in proper order.881 Elsewhere, he makes a different classification on another basis—imperial, provincial, public, and private.882 These are each further subdivided, the first including finance, export and import commerce, and expenditures.883
Agriculture is especially eulogized by the author, in the spirit of Xenophon and Aristotle. It is the primary means of natural acquisition, the others being mining and allied arts whose source of wealth is the land.884 It is the most just acquisition, since it is not gained from men, either by trade, hired labor, or war,885 and it contributes most to manly strength.886 Retail trade and the banausic arts, on the other hand, are both contrary to nature,887 since they render the body weak and inefficient (ἀχρεῖα).888
The work agrees with Aristotle, against Plato, in his doctrine that men and women are essentially different in nature, and hence that their work should be distinct.889 No attempt is made to justify slavery, though Aristotle is followed in his advice to grant emancipation, as a special reward for faithfulness.890 The author of Book ii seems to have taken for granted the Cynic theory that money need have no intrinsic value, at least for local purposes. Coinage of iron,891 tin,892 bronze,893 the arbitrary stamping of drachmas with a double value,894 are all offered apparently as a proper means of escape from financial difficulty. Like Aristotle, he accepts monopoly as a shrewd and legitimate principle of finance.895 Elsewhere, however, in striking contrast to such uneconomic suggestions, the author states the important economic principle that expenditures should not exceed income.896 In accord with Greek usage, he