The Nicomachean Ethics — trans. F. H. Peters (1881)
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The translator’s English as printed (F. H. Peters). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
* e.g. suppose the husbandman is twice as good a man as the shoemaker, then in exchange for a certain quantity of husbandman's work the shoemaker must give twice as much of his own. The price, that is, of corn and shoes must be so adjusted that, if a quarter of corn sell for 50s. and three pair of shoes sell for the same sum, the three pair of shoes must represent twice as much labour as the quarter of com. Aristotle speaks loosely of the ratio between the shoes and the com, etc., but as their value is ex hypothesi the same, and as the relative size, weight, and number of articles is quite accidental (e.g. we might as well measure the corn by bushels or by pounds), the ratio intended can only be the ratio between the quantities of labour. He omits to tell us that these quantities must be measured by time, but the omission is easily supplied. He omits also to tell us how the relative worth of the persons is to be measured, but he has already said all that is necessary in 3, 7.
t Lit. " they must be reduced to proportion," i.e., in strictness, the four terms (two persons and two things) ; for a proportion requires four terms, and means equality of ratios between the two pairs as above.
X i.e. have his superiority counted twice over. His {e.g. the husbandman's) superiority over the other party (the shoemaker) has
5, 12-14] JUSTICE. 157
are still in possession of their own wares ; if this be done, they are put on an equal footing and can make an exchange, because this kind of equality can be established between them.
K A stand for a husbandman and C for a certain quantity of his work (or com), B will stand for a shoemaker, and D for that quantity of shoemaker's work that is valued as equal to C.
If they could not requite each other in this way, interchange of services would be impossible.
That it is our need which forms, as it were, a common bond to hold society together, is seen from the fact that people do not exchange unless they are in need of one another's services (each party of the services of the other, or at least one party of the service of the other), as when that which one has, e.g. wine, is needed by other people who offer to export com in return. This article, then [the com to be exported], must be made equal [to the wine that is imported].*
But even if we happen to want nothing at the moment, money is a sort of guarantee that we shall be able to make an exchange at any future time when we happen to be in need; for iiie man who brings beeu ali-eady taken into account in fixing the price of a quarter of com as equal to three pairs of shoes : this is one advantage which is fairly his ; but it would be plainly unfair if, at the time of exchange, the husbandman were to demand 505. worth of shoes for 25s. worth of com, on the ground that he was twice as good a man : cf. Munro, Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, vol. ii. In the text I have followed Trendelenburg's stopping, throwing the words e« Si fi^i . . . 6,Kpov into a parenthesis.
* i.e. each must be valued in money, so that so many quarters of com shall exchange for so many hogsheads of wine.
p. 158
money must always be able to take goods in exchange.
Money is, indeed, subject to the same conditions as other things : its value is not always the same ; but still it tends to be more constant than the value of anything else.
Everything, then, must be assessed in money ; for this enables men always to exchange their services, and so makes society possible.
Money, then, as a standard, serves to reduce things to a common measure, so that equal amounts of each may be taken ; for there would be no society if there were no exchange, and no exchange if there were no equality, and no equality if it were not possible to reduce things to a common measure.
In strictness, indeed, it is impossible to find any 15 common measure for things so extremely diverse ; but our needs give a standard which is sufficiently accurate for practical purposes.