Book 2
371
And again, if our servitor goes forth empty-handed, not taking with him any of the things needed by those from whom they procure what they themselves require, he will come back with empty hands, will he not? I think so. Then their home production must not merely suffice for themselves but in quality and quantity meet the needs of those of whom they have need. It must. So our city will require more farmers and other craftsmen. Yes, more. And also of other ministrants who are to export and import the merchandise. These are traders, are they not? Yes. We shall also need traders, then. Assuredly. And if the trading is carried on by sea, we shall need quite a number of others who are expert in maritime business. Quite a number. But again, within the city itself how will they share with one another the products of their labor? This was the very purpose of our association and establishment of a state. Obviously, he said, by buying and selling. A market-place, then, and money as a tokenAristotle adds that the medium of exchange must of itself have value (Politics 1257 a 36). for the purpose of exchange will be the result of this. By all means. If, then, the farmer or any other craftsman taking his products to the market-place does not arrive at the same time with those who desire to exchange with him, is he to sit idle in the market-place and lose time from his own work? By no means, he said, but there are men who see this need and appoint themselves for this service—in well-conducted cities they are generally those who are weakestSimilarly in Laws 918-920. in body and those who are useless for any other task. They must wait there in the agora and exchange money for goods with those who wish to sell, and goods for money with as many as desire to buy. This need, then, said I, creates the class of shopkeepers in our city. Or is not shopkeepers the name we give to those who, planted in the agora, serve us in buying and selling, while we call those who roam from city to city merchants? Certainly. And there are, furthermore, I believe, other servitors who in the things of the mind are not altogether worthy of our fellowship, but whose strength of body is sufficient for toil; so they, selling the use of this strength and calling the price wages, are designated, I believe, wage-earners, are they not? Certainly. Wage-earners, then, it seems, are the complement that helps to fill up the state.Aristotle (Politics 1254 b 18) says that those, the use of whose bodies is the best they have to offer, are by nature slaves. Cf Jesus of Sirach xxxviii. 36 ἄνευ αὐτῶν οὐκ οἰκισθήσεται πόλις. So Carlyle, and Shakespeare on Caliban: We cannot miss him (Tempest, I. ii). I think so. Has our city, then, Adeimantus, reached its full growth and is it complete? Perhaps. Where, then, can justice and injustice be found in it? And along with which of the constituents that we have considered does it come into the state?
