The work agrees with Aristotle, against Plato, in his doctrine that men and women are essentially different in nature, and hence that their work should be distinct.[889] No attempt is made to justify slavery, though Aristotle is followed in his advice to grant emancipation, as a special reward for faithfulness.[890] The author of Book ii seems to have taken for granted the Cynic theory that money need have no intrinsic value, at least for local purposes. Coinage of iron,[891] tin,[892] bronze,[893] the arbitrary stamping of drachmas with a double value,[894] are all offered apparently as a proper means of escape from financial difficulty. Like Aristotle, he accepts monopoly as a shrewd and legitimate principle of finance.[895] Elsewhere, however, in striking contrast to such uneconomic suggestions, the author states the important economic principle that expenditures should not exceed income.[896] In accord with Greek usage, he is familiar with a tax on exports for revenue and as a means of guarding against depletion of supply.[897]
The Cyrenaics were the forerunners of the Epicureans in their more liberal attitude toward wealth. Aristippus,[898] the founder of the school, was a man of the world, who believed in enjoying life as it came.[899] He held that pleasure was always a good, and that all else was of value only as a means of realizing this end.[900] If consistent, therefore, he must have valued highly moderate wealth. His principle that one should aim to realize the highest degree of pleasure with the least economic expenditure is somewhat analogous to the modern economic doctrine of the smallest means.[901] Bion of Borysthenes became a Cyrenaic in his later life, but his satires are almost entirely lost.[902]
Epicurus, though the apostle of hedonism, and heir of the Cyrenaics, taught a doctrine of wealth somewhat similar to that of the Stoics.[903] His “happiness” consisted in living a simple and prudent life. He taught that spiritual wealth is unlimited, and that the wise are contented with things easy to acquire (εὐπόριστα);[904] that external wealth, on the other hand, is limited,[905] and that it is not increase of possessions but limitation of desires that makes truly rich.[906] He believed the simplest food to be best,[907] both for pleasure and for health, that many wealthy find no escape from ills,[908] that he who is not satisfied with little will not be satisfied with all,[909] and that contented poverty is the greatest wealth.[910] In accord with his teaching, he seems to have lived very simply.[911] However, he did not go to the extreme of the Cynics and Stoics, but taught that the wise will have a care to gain property, and not live as beggars.[912] He exhibits no tendency toward communism, but rather toward the extreme individualism of the Sophists, and was in sympathy with their social contract theory.[913] Later Epicureanism degenerated by taking the hedonistic principle of its founder too literally. Like the Sophists, the school has influenced modern economic thought through its conception of justice, as a mere convention for mutual advantage.[914]