[
1258b]
[1]
(for it is not in accordance with nature, but involves men's taking
things from one another). As this is so, usury is most reasonably
hated, because its gain comes from money itself and not from that for the sake
of which money was invented. For money was brought into existence for the
purpose of exchange, but interest increases the amount of the money itself
(and this is the actual origin of the Greek word: offspring resembles
parent, and interest is money born of money); consequently this form of
the business of getting wealth is of all forms the most contrary to nature.
And since we have adequately
defined the scientific side of the subject, we ought to discuss it from the
point of view of practice; although, whereas the theory of such matters is a
liberal study, the practical pursuit of them is narrowing. The practically
useful branches of the art of wealth-getting are first, an expert knowledge of
stock, what breeds are most profitable and in what localities and under what
conditions, for instance what particular stock in horses or cattle or sheep, and
similarly of the other animals also (for the farmer must be an expert
as to which of these animals are most profitable compared with one another, and
also as to what breeds are most profitable on what sorts of land, since
different breeds flourish in different places); secondly, the subject
of agriculture, and this again is divided into corn-growing and fruit-farming;
also bee-keeping, and the breeding of the other creatures finned and
feathered
[20]
which can be used to
furnish supplies. These then are the
branches and primary parts of wealth-getting in the most proper sense. Of the
kind that deals with exchange, the largest branch is commerce (which
has three departments, ship-owning, transport and marketing: these departments
differ from each other in the fact that some are safer and others carry larger
profits); the second branch is money-lending, and the third labor for
hire, one department of which is that of the mechanic
1 arts and the other that of unskilled
laborers who are useful only for bodily service. And there is a third form of
wealth-getting that lies between the latter and the one placed first, since it
possesses mediate an element both of natural wealth-getting and of the sort that
employs exchange; it deals with all the commodities that are obtained from the
earth and from those fruitless but useful things that come from the
earth—examples are the felling of timber
2 and all sorts of mining; and of mining itself there
are many classes, since there are many sorts of metals obtained out of the
earth. The
3 most
scientific of these industries are those which involve the smallest element of
chance, the most mechanic those in which the operatives undergo the greatest
amount of bodily degradation, the most servile those in which the most uses are
made of the body, and the most ignoble those in which there is the least
requirement of virtue as an accessory. But while we have even now given a
general description of these various branches, yet a detailed and particular
account of them, though useful for the practice of the industries, would be
illiberal as a subject of prolonged study. There are books on these subjects by certain authors, for
example Charetides
4
of
Paros