His legislation against the sale of adulterated products,242 and in favor of publicity in business,243 and state supervision of prices244 has a startlingly modern ring.
# POPULATION
The problem of population and food supply, which disturbed Malthus and some of the other English economists, was also a cause of concern to Greek thinkers. This might well be expected, since it is a recognized fact that the source of the grain supply was always a matter of grave concern to Athens and many other Greek cities.245
Plato states the problem clearly and hints at a solution, when he says that the natural increase of population in his state shall not exceed the economic basis for it.246 In the Laws, he suggests specific means for preserving the proper number by restraining over-productive people, and by encouraging the opposite.247 If such general provisions should not prove sufficient, he would then resort to colonization.248 On the other hand, should population be greatly depleted by war or disease, he would even open the doors of citizenship to the undesirable classes.249 His interest in the problem of population, however, is primarily moral and social rather than economic. Moreover, in antithesis to Malthus, he limits his consideration to a very small, artificially constructed state. With the narrow political vision of a Greek, he thinks that the production of a multitude of “happy-hearted” men in a state is impossible.250
# DISTRIBUTION
As stated in the Introduction, the economic interest of Greek thinkers was particularly alive in the fields of distribution and consumption. It is here that they are especially interesting and suggestive.251 However, they dealt very little with the important principles of distribution as laid down by modern economists. Theories of the several