Aristotle's points of view 87 



on a greater or less scale, according to the size of their estates, seems 

 as certain as certain can be. In Attica the slave overseer, entrusted 

 with the direction of a gang of slave labourers, had become 1 a well- 

 recognized figure, and farming by deputy, as well as labouring by 

 deputy, was an ordinary thing. Citizens resided in the city more than 

 ever. Rich men visited their country estates to keep an eye on their 

 overseers, or paid the penalty of their neglect. Poor citizens, resident 

 and able to attend meetings of the Assembly, had to be kept quiet by 

 systematic provision of fees for performance of civic functions. It may 

 be too strong to say that squeezing the wealthy was the leading fact 

 of politics: but there was too much of that sort of thing, and the 

 scramble for state pay was demoralizing. Immediate personal interest 

 tended to deaden patriotism in a state that within human memory had, 

 whatever its faults, been the most public-spirited community among 

 the leading states of Greece, 



In treating of politics, and therewith in assigning a position to 

 agriculture, Aristotle was affected by three main influences. First, 

 the historical; the experience of Greek states, and more particularly 

 of Athens. Secondly, the theoretical ; the various attempts of earlier 

 philosophers, particularly of Plato, to find a solution of political problems 

 on speculative lines. Thirdly, his own firm conviction that the lasting 

 success of state life depended on devotion to a moral end. It will be 

 the simplest and best plan to consider his utterances on agriculture 

 from these three points of view. 



The supply of food being the first of necessities, and being in fact 

 (as we have seen) an ever-pressing problem in Greece, it is no wonder 

 that land-hunger, leading to wars for territory, and land-grabbing, a 

 fertile cause of internal dissension and seditions in states, were normal 

 phenomena of Greek history. And what happened in old Hellas was 

 reproduced abroad, as the Greek colonists overflowed into lands beyond 

 the seas. Once the possession of territory was secured by war, and 

 the means of its defence organized, two problems soon presented them- 

 selves for solution. It was at once necessary to decide by what labour 

 the land was to be cultivated. Greek colonists, desirous no doubt of 

 an easier life than they had led in the old country, generally contrived 

 to devolve this labour upon others at a very early stage of their 

 establishment. Either they reduced natives to the condition of serfs, 

 or they employed slaves, whom the profits of growing trade and com- 

 merce enabled them to procure in larger and larger numbers. Mean- 

 while in the mother country various systems went on side by side. 

 There were large districts of agricultural serfage, in which a race of 

 conquerors were supported by the labour of the conquered. In other 



1 Economics l 5 i, 6 5, Pol I 7 5, and see the chapter on Xenophon. 



