There was a man of Sicily, who, having money deposited with him,
bought up an the iron from the iron mines; afterwards, when the
merchants from their various markets came to buy, he was the only
seller, and without much increasing the price he gained 200 per
cent. Which when Dionysius heard, he told him that he might take
away his money, but that he must not remain at Syracuse, for he
thought that the man had discovered a way of making money which was
injurious to his own interests. He made the same discovery as
Thales; they both contrived to create a monopoly for themselves. And
statesmen as well ought to know these things; for a state is often
as much in want of money and of such devices for obtaining it as a
household, or even more so; hence some public men devote themselves
entirely to finance.

                                   XII

  Of household management we have seen that there are three parts- one
is the rule of a master over slaves, which has been discussed already,
another of a father, and the third of a husband. A husband and father,
we saw, rules over wife and children, both free, but the rule differs,
the rule over his children being a royal, over his wife a
constitutional rule. For although there may be exceptions to the order
of nature, the male is by nature fitter for command than the female,
just as the elder and full-grown is superior to the younger and more
immature. But in most constitutional states the citizens rule and
are ruled by turns, for the idea of a constitutional state implies
that the natures of the citizens are equal, and do not differ at
all. Nevertheless, when one rules and the other is ruled we endeavor
to create a difference of outward forms and names and titles of
respect, which may be illustrated by the saying of Amasis about his
foot-pan. The relation of the male to the female is of this kind,
but there the inequality is permanent. The rule of a father over his
children is royal, for he rules by virtue both of love and of the
respect due to age, exercising a kind of royal power. And therefore
Homer has appropriately called Zeus 'father of Gods and men,'
because he is the king of them all. For a king is the natural superior
of his subjects, but he should be of the same kin or kind with them,
and such is the relation of elder and younger, of father and son.

                                   XIII

  Thus it is clear that household management attends more to men
than to the acquisition of inanimate things, and to human excellence
more than to the excellence of property which we call wealth, and to
the virtue of freemen more than to the virtue of slaves. A question
may indeed be raised, whether there is any excellence at all in a
slave beyond and higher than merely instrumental and ministerial
qualities- whether he can have the virtues of temperance, courage,
justice, and the like; or whether slaves possess only bodily and
ministerial qualities. And, whichever way we answer the question, a
difficulty arises; for, if they have virtue, in what will they
differ from freemen? On the other hand, since they are men and share
in rational principle, it seems absurd to say that they have no
virtue. A similar question may be raised about women and children,
whether they too have virtues: ought a woman to be temperate and brave
and just, and is a child to be called temperate, and intemperate, or
note So in general we may ask about the natural ruler, and the natural
subject, whether they have the same or different virtues. For if a
noble nature is equally required in both, why should one of them
always rule, and the other always be ruled? Nor can we say that this
is a question of degree, for the difference between ruler and
subject is a difference of kind, which the difference of more and less
never is. Yet how strange is the supposition that the one ought, and
that the other ought not, to have virtue! For if the ruler is
intemperate and unjust, how can he rule well? If the subject, how
can he obey well? If he be licentious and cowardly, he will
certainly not do his duty. It is evident, therefore, that both of them
must have a share of virtue, but varying as natural subjects also vary
among themselves. Here the very constitution of the soul has shown
us the way; in it one part naturally rules, and the other is
subject, and the virtue of the ruler we in maintain to be different
from that of the subject; the one being the virtue of the rational,
and the other of the irrational part. Now, it is obvious that the same
principle applies generally, and therefore almost all things rule
and are ruled according to nature. But the kind of rule differs; the
freeman rules over the slave after another manner from that in which
the male rules over the female, or the man over the child; although
the parts of the soul are present in an of them, they are present in
different degrees. For the slave has no deliberative faculty at all;
the woman has, but it is without authority, and the child has, but
it is immature. So it must necessarily be supposed to be with the
moral virtues also; all should partake of them, but only in such
manner and degree as is required by each for the fulfillment of his
duty. Hence the ruler ought to have moral virtue in perfection, for
his function, taken absolutely, demands a master artificer, and
rational principle is such an artificer; the subjects, oil the other
hand, require only that measure of virtue which is proper to each of
them. Clearly, then, moral virtue belongs to all of them; but the
temperance of a man and of a woman, or the courage and justice of a
man and of a woman, are not, as Socrates maintained, the same; the
courage of a man is shown in commanding, of a woman in obeying. And
this holds of all other virtues, as will be more clearly seen if we
look at them in detail, for those who say generally that virtue
consists in a good disposition of the soul, or in doing rightly, or
the like, only deceive themselves. Far better than such definitions is
their mode of speaking, who, like Gorgias, enumerate the virtues.
All classes must be deemed to have their special attributes; as the
poet says of women,