5. _Socialistic tendency._—Since Greek economy was chiefly interested in the problems of distribution, it tended toward socialism, both in theory and in practice. This was also a natural outgrowth of the fact that individual interests were subordinated to public welfare. Though the latter half of the fifth century witnessed a great individualistic movement in Greece, and though individualism and independence are often named as prominent Greek characteristics, yet these terms did not constitute a basal political principle, even in the free Athenian democracy, in the same sense as they do with us today. The life of the Greek citizen was lived far more for the state, and was more absolutely at the disposal of the state, than is true in any modern democracy. In Greece, politics was thus the social science of first importance, and the supreme purpose of all human activity was to make good citizens. State interference or regulation was thus accepted as a matter of course, and the setting of prices, rigid regulation of grain commerce, exploitation of the rich in the interest of the poor, and public ownership of great material interests such as mines were not revolutionary ideas, but common facts in Greek life.[16] The tendency of the theorists was therefore naturally toward centralization of power in the hands of the state, and an exaggerated idea of the omnipotence of law.[17] Yet despite the error inherent in it, this socialistic tendency of Greek economic thought had its basal truth, which is becoming an axiom of modern economics and statesmanship—the belief that private property is not a natural right, but a gift of society, and hence that its activities should be controlled by society, and made to minister to public welfare. Indeed, we have by no means escaped the error of the Greek thinkers, for one of the most common mistakes of statesmen and political theorists today is an overestimate of the effectiveness of law. Footnote 1: F. Wilhelm (_Rhein. Mus._, XVII, No. 2 [1915], 163, n. 2) says: “Eine Geschichte der theoretischen Behandlung der Oekonomik bei den Griechen ist noch zu schreiben.” The present work was undertaken in the year 1911. Footnote 2: Cf. Zimmern, _Greek Commonwealth_, pp. 211 ff.; but the statement on p. 222 is extreme: “where competition and unemployment are unknown terms, where hardly anyone is working precariously for money wages or salary.” Footnote 3: Cf. Roscher, _Ansichten der Volkswirtschaft_ (1878), I, chap. i, p. 7; Ar. _Pol._ 1259_b_18-21. Footnote 4: Cf. Plato _Rep._ 498A; Xen. _Econ._, a treatise on household management; Ar. _Pol._ i. p. 3, on the divisions of οἰκονομία; chap. 8, on whether finance (χρηματιστική) is a part of οἰκονομική; pseudo-Ar. _Economica_; cf. _infra_, p. 63, nn. 5 and 6; p. 82, n. 1; p. 128, for fuller discussion. Footnote 5: