Aristotle's Economic Thought SCOTT MEIKLE CLAREl\'DON PRESS OXFORD 1995 OxfcmJ Un,wr111)1 Pms, Wallon Simi'!, OxfcmJ ox2 6or Oxf11nlriashot,ldbr unr co clu, R;,hi. D.,,..r1111m1, Oxford Uniwnil)I Pross. <1l1Maddroudbow British Liln-,iry C:11<1/opin,f in Pultlia11ion 0414 D<11<1<111<111.aWt L1br<1ry of Cong,tss C:ilalogi"l ,n Public..1,on O..ra Mnlrlr,S,;ou Ansro1k", uonomit 1ho,ch1 I S,;o11 M~lilt /ndPdu ln"blicgrophico1 n)Lld on.u,d-f,..p<1pnby BidrllnL1d, Guildford f!f Kine'• Lyr1n To Kirsten ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is a pleasure to thank my friends and colleagues Pat Shaw and Chris Martin for reading large parts of the manuscript, and for much critical discussion. To Hillel Tickt in and Geoff Kay I owe a special debt for having introduced me to the murky depths of exchange value. Some of the material has appeared in print before. I am grateful to the Journal of Hellenic Studies, Polis, the Classical Quarterly, Phronesis, and Basil Blackwell, for permission to make use of it here. Lindsay Judson's article 'Aristotle on Fair Exchange' deals in part with an earlier article of mine on the same subject, which appeared in the Journal of Hellenic Studies in 1991, and which reappears in a slightly altered form as Chapter 7 of the present book. Judson's article also presents arguments address ing issues that are fundamental to the interpretation of Aristotle offered here, but it unfortunately reached me too late to be taken account of Translations are always from Ross, Rackham, Barker, or Irwin. On the few occasions when another translator has been used, this has been indicated in the text. I acknowledge the granting of one term of study leave towards preparing the book by the Department of Personnel Services (Academic) of Glasgow University. S.M. Glasgow 1994 Abbreviations vm Introduction 1 1 Exchange Value: Nicomachean Ethics, 5. 5 6 2 Ch-reia and Demand: Nicomachean Ethics, 5 28 Exchange: Politics, 1 43 4 The Integrity of the Analysis 68 5 Money: Politics, 1. 8-10 87 6 Neo-Classical Interpretation 110 7 Justice in Exchange: 'As Builder to Shoemaker' 129 8 The Ancient 'Economy' and its Literature 147 9 Nature and Commensurability 180 Bibliography 201 Index 212 ABBREVIATIONS The works of Aristotle are abbreviated as follows: Cat Categories De Gen. An. De Generatione Animalium De Part. An. De Partibw Animalium EE Eudemian Ethics /IA Historia Animalium M,t Metaphysics MM Magna Mo-ralia NE Nicomachean Ethics Pol. Politics Rhet. Rhetoric S. El. De Sophisticis Elenchis INTRODUCTION The influence of Aristotle's economic writing has beenjw.l,; culablv i!eat, yet it amounts to fewer than half a dozen pages of theftc"1ru1Chean Ethics and the Politics in the Bekker text. It was the backbone of medieval thinking about commercial behaviour and matters that we would call 'economic' .1 It still provides the foundation for Catholic social teaching, and it was an important influence in Islamic economic thought. It is usu ally held to be the first analytical contribution to economics, and histories of economic thought usually begin with it.2 Aristotle's theory of money substantially informed treatments of the subject into the twentieth century, and most schools of modern economic thought have had claims of Aristotelian paternity made on their behalf, including Jevonian utility theor~, mathematicaJ economics, neo-classical economics, and The main texts are NE 5. 5 and Pol., l. 8-10. T.k..,inw- re:tati n o t · · ven t e object of Aristotle's inquiries is disputed. It has been seen as ~c analysis, as entirely ~ and having nothing to do with eco nomic analysis, and as snobbish political prejudice against traders and money-makers. The chapters are usually thought to lack intellectual cohesion, and to amount to little more than an expression of aristocratic anti-business attitudes. Few parts of the Aristotelian corpus are held in lower esteem, and they are seldom included in selected editions of Aristotle's works.3 The chaos has appeared only in the past 120 years or so. Over centuries of commentary the texts did not prove so trouble some. The ancient commentaries did not make such heavy 1 On 111 rol, ,n med,rval though! about commau and mONey, see O Lan1holm. \k',alih <111<1' Mor,ey 111 1M Ans1a1,ban T~

Aristotle’s Economic Thought

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