economic, an attempt to teach the somewhat ascetic principle that a man’s riches are measured by the paucity of his wants.391
The hostile or indifferent attitude to wealth is also assumed in the comparison of it with so-called mental wealth and wisdom392 and in the implication that it involves many cares.393
The idea so prominent in Plato, however, that the acquisition or expenditure of great wealth is not consistent with justice, is not emphasized by Xenophon.
He calls that man happiest who has best succeeded in just acquisition, and who uses his wealth in the best manner.394
PRODUCTION
The Greeks had no specific word for production, as we have, since industry, though well developed, was not a dominant feature of Greek life, and economics had not become a separate science.
The word ἐργασία, meaning “labor” or “business,” served the purpose. The term was used of productive labor,395 of building or manufacturing,396 of work in raw materials,397 most commonly of agriculture,398 of industries in general,399 of the trades, commerce, or other business for money-making,400 and of a guild of laborers.401
The term ἡ ποιητικὴ τέχνη, “the productive art,” which approaches more nearly to a specific, technical expression, was also used.402
Thus, though there is no clear-cut term for production, the statement of Zimmern403 that the Greeks had no better word for “business” than ἀσχολία, “lack of leisure,” is hardly warranted.
Xenophon was far more interested than Plato or Aristotle in the problem of practical production. His shrewd discussion of agriculture,