is familiar with a tax on exports for revenue and as a means of guarding against depletion of supply.897
CYRENAICS
The Cyrenaics were the forerunners of the Epicureans in their more liberal attitude toward wealth. Aristippus,898 the founder of the school, was a man of the world, who believed in enjoying life as it came.899 He held that pleasure was always a good, and that all else was of value only as a means of realizing this end.900 If consistent, therefore, he must have valued highly moderate wealth. His principle that one should aim to realize the highest degree of pleasure with the least economic expenditure is somewhat analogous to the modern economic doctrine of the smallest means.901 Bion of Borysthenes became a Cyrenaic in his later life, but his satires are almost entirely lost.902
EPICURUS AND HIS SCHOOL
Epicurus, though the apostle of hedonism, and heir of the Cyrenaics, taught a doctrine of wealth somewhat similar to that of the Stoics.903 His “happiness” consisted in living a simple and prudent life. He taught that spiritual wealth is unlimited, and that the wise are contented with things easy to acquire (εὐπόριστα);904 that external wealth, on the other hand, is limited,905 and that it is not increase of possessions but limitation of desires that makes truly rich.906 He believed the simplest food to be best,907 both for pleasure and for health, that many wealthy find no escape from ills,908 that he who is not satisfied with little will not be satisfied with all,909 and that contented poverty is the greatest wealth.910 In accord with his teaching, he seems to have lived very simply.911 However, he did not go to the extreme of the Cynics and Stoics, but taught that the wise will have a care to gain property, and not live as beggars.912 He exhibits no tendency toward communism, but rather toward the extreme individualism of the Sophists, and was in sympathy with their social contract theory.913 Later