Justice -- Early works to 1800; Political science -- Early works to 1800; Utopias -- Early works to 1800
And therefore what they produce at home must be not only enough for
themselves, but such both in quantity and quality as to accommodate those
from whom their wants are supplied.
Very true.
Then more husbandmen and more artisans will be required?
They will.
Not to mention the importers and exporters, who are called merchants?
Yes.
Then we shall want merchants?
We shall.
And if merchandise is to be carried over the sea, skilful *371B* sailors
will also be needed, and in considerable numbers?
Yes, in considerable numbers.
Then, again, within the city, how will they exchange their {52}
productions? To secure such an exchange was, as you will remember, one of
our principal objects when we formed them into a society and constituted a
State.
Clearly they will buy and sell.
Then they will need a market-place, and a money-token for purposes of
exchange.
Certainly.
[Sidenote: The origin of retail trade.]
*371C* Suppose now that a husbandman, or an artisan, brings some
production to market, and he comes at a time when there is no one to
exchange with him,--is he to leave his calling and sit idle in the
market-place?
Not at all; he will find people there who, seeing the want, undertake the
office of salesmen. In well-ordered states they are commonly those who are
the weakest in bodily strength, and therefore of little use for any other
purpose; their duty is *371D* to be in the market, and to give money in
exchange for goods to those who desire to sell and to take money from
those who desire to buy.
This want, then, creates a class of retail-traders in our State. Is not
'retailer' the term which is applied to those who sit in the market-place
engaged in buying and selling, while those who wander from one city to
another are called merchants?
Yes, he said.
*371E* And there is another class of servants, who are intellectually
hardly on the level of companionship; still they have plenty of bodily
strength for labour, which accordingly they sell, and are called, if I do
not mistake, hirelings, hire being the name which is given to the price of
their labour.
True.
Then hirelings will help to make up our population?
Yes.
And now, Adeimantus, is our State matured and perfected?
I think so.
Where, then, is justice, and where is injustice, and in what part of the
State did they spring up?
*372A* Probably in the dealings of these citizens with one another. I
cannot imagine that they are more likely to be found any where else.
I dare say that you are right in your suggestion, I said; {53} we had
better think the matter out, and not shrink from the enquiry.
[Sidenote: A picture of primitive life.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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