Politics

​namely, the nomadic, the predatory, the fishing, the hunting, and the agricultural. And some people live agreeably by mixing these, reinforcing a more needy mode of life where it happens to fall short of being self-sufficient; as for instance, some lead a nomadic life and a predatory life at the same time, others an agricultural life and a hunting life; and similarly with the others, they pass their lives in this manner as necessity constrains them. This kind of acquisition, then, seems to be given by nature itself to all, just as immediately at their first birth, so also when they have reached maturity. For even at the first birth from the beginning, some animals bring forth together with them so much food as to be sufficient until the offspring can procure it for itself, as for instance those that produce larvae or those that produce eggs; and those that are viviparous have food within themselves for their young up to a certain point, of the nature of what is called milk. So that similarly, it is clear that we must believe that, once they are born, plants exist for the sake of animals, and the other animals for the sake of human beings—the domestic ones both for use and for food, and of the wild ones, if not all, at least most of them for the sake of food and other assistance, so that clothing and other tools may come from them. If, then, nature makes nothing incomplete or in vain, it is necessary that nature has made all of them for the sake of human beings. Therefore, even the art of war will be by nature in a way an art of acquisition (for the art of hunting is a part of it), which must be used against wild beasts and against those human beings who, though naturally suited to be ruled, are unwilling; since this war is by nature just. One species, then, of the art of acquisition according to nature is a part of household management, in accordance with which it must either be already there, or the art must provide that there be a store of goods necessary for life and useful for the association of a city or a household. And true wealth seems to consist in these. For the self-sufficiency of this kind of property for a good life is not limitless, as Solon says in his poetry: ‘No bound of wealth lies revealed to men.’ For a bound is set, just as in the other arts; for no tool of any art is unlimited either in number or in size, and wealth is a multitude of household and political tools. That there is, then, a certain art of acquisition according to nature for household managers and statesmen, and for what reason, is clear. But there is another kind of the art of acquisition, which they especially call, and which it is just to call, retail trade (or finance), because of which there seems to be no limit to wealth and property.