This idea of value is true enough from the ethical standpoint, and should not be left out of account, as is being recognized by modern economists. But to attempt to build a theory of economic value on such a basis, as Ruskin does,383 would result in hopeless confusion. Value is not merely an individual and moral, but also a social and economic, fact.
A hint of exchange value is given in the implied classification of goods as usable or salable.384 But there is no discrimination between useful things in the economic and uneconomic sense. In the Revenues, on the other hand, when free from Socratic influence, Xenophon makes a positive contribution to the theory of value.
He observes that the exchange value of goods varies with supply and demand, and that this law is, in a sense, self-regulative by the fact that workmen tend to enter other fields of activity whenever any industry becomes unprofitable through an oversupply of its products.385
WEALTH
The double standpoint of Xenophon is well illustrated in his doctrine of wealth. On the one hand, he values it highly, and tries to deduce practical rules for its increase and enjoyment.386
On the other hand, like Socrates and Plato, he makes derogatory comparisons between economic and spiritual wealth.387
As in the case of value, he offers no clear definition of economic wealth (κτῆσις). It is defined indiscriminately as “whatever is useful to life,” and “useful” is “everything that anyone knows how to use.”388 But, as seen above, this is a purely subjective notion, and is only one element in economic wealth.389
He also defines it (χρήματα) as “the excess of goods over needs,” making it a merely relative term:390 but here again the thought is ethical rather than