This somewhat miscellaneous chapter starts promisingly by stressing practice as opposed to theory; but the first three paragraphs give us only a résumé of the useful and profitable ways of acquiring goods (chrēmatistikē), classified in a manner broadly similar to that adopted in the preceding three chapters, but differing in certain respects. Aristotle rightly stresses the usefulness of describing practical details, but clearly his heart is not in them, and he soon announces, after some swift generalizations in the third paragraph, that other writers may be consulted. He then draws attention to scattered reports of successful methods of acquiring goods, and with the instinct of an encyclopedist suggests they should be collected. He gives us two entertaining examples of the creation of monopolies, and no doubt feels a certain satisfaction at Thales’ triumphant demonstration that philosophers are far from the financial idiots they are often taken to be. He concludes with the claim that such information about methods is useful to statesmen.
1258b9 Now that we have discussed adequately the theory,1 we ought to speak also about practice. In matters like this, theoretical speculation is free, but practical experience is tied fast to circumstances and needs. Some useful branches of the technique of acquiring wealth will now be mentioned. One may have experience in: (1) Stock-rearing, in which one needs to know what kinds are most profitable and where and how, e.g. how to acquire horses, cattle, sheep and other animals similarly; and further one must know by experience which of these are most profitable as compared with the rest, and which kinds in which areas, since some do better here, others there. (2) Tillage, of fields sown with crops and fields planted for fruit. (3) Bee-keeping, and rearing such birds and fishes as can contribute to supplies. Those are the three main branches of the first and most appropriate way of acquiring wealth.
1258b21 Of the other method, that of exchange, the main branch is (1) commerce, subdivided into (a) shipping, (b) carrying goods, (c) offering them for sale. In all these there are wide differences according to whether one looks for a high return or for security. Then (2) money-lending, and (3) working for pay, whether (a) as a skilled mechanic, or (b) as an unskilled worker useful only in manual labour. Somewhere between these two main categories of acquisition of goods we might put a third, since it has elements in it both of nature and of exchange: I refer to what is got out of the earth itself or from uncultivated but useful things growing out of the earth – such occupations as timber-working, and mining of every description. This latter can be extensively subdivided, for the substances mined from the earth are of many types.
1258b33 About each of these methods I have still2 spoken only in a general way; and however useful a detailed account might be for those likely to be engaged in such occupations, it would be irksome to spend much time on them. Those occupations which require most skill are those in which there is the smallest element of chance, the most mechanical are those which cause most deterioration to the bodies of the workers, the most slavish those in which most use is made of the body, and the most ignoble those in which there is least need to exercise virtue too. Moreover, people have written books on these topics. Charetides of Paros and Apollodorus of Lemnos have manuals on agriculture, both crops and fruits, and others on other subjects, so that anyone who is interested may study them in those writers’ works.
1259a3 It would be advisable to make a collection of all those scattered reports of methods by which men have succeeded in making money. It would certainly be very useful for those who think money-making3 important. For instance, Thales of Miletus used a money-spinning device which, though it was ascribed to his prowess as a philosopher, is in principle open to anybody. The story is as follows: people had been saying reproachfully to him that philosophy was useless, as it had left him a poor man. But he, deducing from his knowledge of the stars that there would be a good crop of olives, while it was still winter and he had a little money to spare, used it to pay deposits on all the oil-presses in Miletus and Chios, thus securing their hire. This cost him only a small sum, as there were no other bidders. Then the time of the olive-harvest came, and as there was a sudden and simultaneous demand for oil-presses he hired them out at any price he liked to ask. He made a lot of money, and so demonstrated that it is easy for philosophers to become rich, if they want to; but that is not their object in life. Such is the story of how Thales gave proof of his cleverness; but, as we have said, the principle can be applied generally: the way to make money is to get, if you can, a monopoly for yourself. Hence we find states also employing this method when they are short of money: they secure themselves a monopoly.
1259a23 There was a man in Sicily, too, who used a sum of money that had been deposited with him to buy up all the iron from the foundries; then, when the merchants arrived from their shops, he used to be the only seller; and without raising the price unduly he turned his fifty talents into a hundred and fifty. When the ruler Dionysius heard of this he told the man that he regarded such ways of raising money as detrimental to his own interests and that he must therefore depart from Syracuse at once, though he might take his money with him. Thales’ notion and this man’s are the same: both managed to create a monopoly for themselves. All this knowledge is useful for statesmen too; for many states are in greater need of business and the income it brings than a household is. Hence we find that some of those who direct the affairs of a state actually make this their sole concern.