Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/365

Rh POLITICAL ECONOMY 349 old hereditary structure of theological convictions, tended to the substitution of rational theories in every department of speculation. The eminent Greek thinkers, while taking a deep interest in the rise of positive science, and most of them studying the only science that of geometry then assuming its definitive character, were led by the social exigencies which always powerfully affect great minds to study with special care the nature of man and the con ditions of his existence in society. These studies were j indeed essentially premature ; a long development of the inorganic and vital sciences was necessary before sociology or morals could attain their normal constitution. But by their prosecution amongst the Greeks a noble intellectual activity was kept alive, and many of those partial lights obtainad for which mankind cannot afford to wait. Economic inquiries, along with others, tended towards rationality ; Plutus was dethroned, and terrestrial sub stituted for supernatural agencies. But such inquiries, resting on no sufficiently large basis of practical life, could not attain any considerable results. The military consti tution of society, and the existence of slavery, which was related to it, leading, as has been shown, to a low estimate of productive industry, turned away the habitual attention of thinkers from that domain. On the other hand, the absorption of citizens in the life of the state, and their preoccupation with party struggles, brought questions relating to politics, properly so called, into special promin ence. The principal writers on social subjects are there fore almost exclusively occupied with the examination and comparison of political constitutions, and with the search after the education best adapted to train the citizen for public functions. And we find, accordingly, in them no systematic or adequate handling of economic questions, only some happy ideas and striking partial anticipations of later research. In their thinking on such questions, as on all sociological subjects, the following general features are observable. 1. The individual is conceived as subordinated to the state, through which alone his nature can be developed and completed, and to the maintenance and service of which all his efforts must be directed. The great aim of all poli tical thought is the formation of good citizens ; every social question is studied primarily from the ethical and educa tional point of view. The citizen is not regarded as a producer, but only as a possessor, of material wealth ; and this wealth is not esteemed for its own sake or for the enjoyments it procures, but for the higher moral and public aims to which it may be made subservient. 2. The state, therefore, claims and exercises a control ling and regulating authority over every sphere of social life, including the economic, in order to bring individual action into harmony with the good of the whole. 3. With these fundamental notions is combined a tend ency to attribute to institutions and to legislation an unlimited efficacy, as if society had no spontaneous tenden cies, but would obey any external impulse, if impressed upon it with sufficient force and continuity. Every eminent social speculator had his ideal state, which approximated to or diverged from the actual or possible, according to the degree in which a sense of reality and a | positive habit of thinking characterized the author. The most celebrated of these ideal systems is that of Plato. In it the Greek idea of the subordination of the individual to the state appears in its most extreme form. In that class of the citizens of his republic who represent the highest type of life, community of property and of wives is established, as the most effective means of suppressing the sense of private interest, and consecrating the individual entirely to the public service. It cannot perhaps be truly said that his scheme was incapable of realization in an ancient community favourably situated for the purpose. But it would soon be broken to pieces by the forces which would be developed in an industrial society. It has however, been the fruitful parent of modern Utopias, specially attractive as it is to minds in which the literary instinct is stronger than the scientific judgment, in consequence of the freshness and brilliancy of Plato s exposition and the unrivalled charm of his style. Mixed with what we should call the chimerical ideas in his work, there are many striking and elevated moral _ conceptions, and, what is more to our present purpose, some just economic analyses. In particular, he gives a correct account of the division and combination of employments, as they naturally arise in society. The foundation of the social organization he traces, perhaps, too exclusively to economic grounds, not giving sufficient weight to the disinterested social impulses in men which tend to draw and bind them together. But he explains clearly how the different wants and capacities of individuals demand and give rise to mutual services, ami how, by the restriction of each to the sort of occupation to which, by his position, abilities, and training, he is best adapted, everything needful for the whole is more easily and better produced or effected. In the spirit of all the ancient legislators he desires a self-sufficing state, protected from unnecessary contacts with foreign populations, which might tend to break down its internal organization or to deteriorate the national character. Hence he discountenances foreign trade, and with this view removes his ideal city to some distance from the sea. The limits of its territory are rigidly fixed, and the population is restricted by the prohibi tion of early marriages, by the exposure of infants, and by the maintenance of a determinate number of individual lots of land in the hands of the citizens who cultivate the soil. These precautions are inspired more by political and moral motives than by the Maltlmsian fear of failure of subsistence. Plato aims, as far as possible, at equality of property amongst the families of the com munity which are engaged in the immediate prosecution of industry. This last class, as distinguished from the governing and military classes, he holds, according to the spirit of his age, in but little esteem ; he regards their habitual occupations as tending to the degradation of the mind and the enfeeblement of the body, and rendering those who follow them unfit for the higher duties of men and citizens. The lowest forms of labour he would commit to foreigners and slaves. Again in the spirit of ancient theory, he wishes (Lcgg., v. 12) to banish the precious metals, as far as practi cable, from use in internal commerce, and forbids the lending of money on interest, leaving indeed to the free will of the debtor even the repayment of the capital of the loan. All economic dealings he subjects to active control on the art of the Govern ment, not merely to prevent violence and fraud, but to check the growth of luxurious habits, and secure to the population of the state a due supply of the necessaries and comforts of life. Contrasted with the exaggerated idealism of Plato is the some what limited but eminently practical genius of Xenophon. In him the man of action predominates, but he has also a large element of the speculative tendency and talent of the Greek. His treatise entitled (Economicus is well worth reading for the interesting and animated picture it presents of some aspects of contemporary life, and is justly praised by Sismondi for the spirit of mild philan thropy and tender piety which breathes through it. But it scarcely passes beyond the bounds of domestic economy, though within that limit its author exhibits much sound sense and sagacity. His precepts for the judicious conduct of private pro perty do not concern us here, nor his wise suggestions for the government of the family and its dependants. Yet it is in this narrower sphere and in general in the concrete domain that his chief excellence lies ; to economics in their wider aspects he does not contribute much. He shares the ordinary preference of his fellow countrymen for agriculture over other employments, and is, indeed, enthusiastic in his praises of it as developing patriotic and religious feeling and a respect for property, as the best preparation for military life, and as leaving sufficient time and thought dis posable to admit of considerable intellectual and political activity. Yet his practical sense leads him to attribute greater importance than most other Greek writers to manufactures, and still more to trade, to enter more largely on questions relating to their con ditions and development, and to bespeak for them the countenance and protection of the state. Though his views on the nature of money arc vague and in some respects erroneous, he sees that its export in exchange for commodities will not impoverish the com munity. He also insists on the necessity, with a view to a flourishing commerce with other countries, of peace, of a courteous and respectful treatment of foreign traders, and of a prompt and equitable decision of their legal suits. The institution of slavery he of course recognizes and does not disapprove ; he even recom mends, for the increase of the Attic revenues, the hiring out of slaves by the state for labour in the mines, after branding them to prevent their escape, the number of slaves being constantly increased by fresh purchases out of the gains of the enterprise. Almost the whole system of Greek ideas up to the time of Aristotle is represented in his encyclopaedic construction. Mathe matical and astronomical science was largely developed at a later stage, but in the field of social studies no higher point was ever