Athenian Stranger.Dear Cleinias,the class of men is small-they must have been rarely gifted by nature,and trained by education-who,when assailed by wants and desires,are able to hold out and observe moderation,and when they might make a great deal of money are sober in their wishes,and prefer a moderate to a large gain.But the mass of mankind are the very opposite:their desires are unbounded,and when they might gain in moderation they prefer gains without limit;wherefore all that relates to retail trade,and merchandise,and the keeping of taverns,is denounced and numbered among dishonourable things.For if what I trust may never be and will not be,we were to compel,if I may venture to say a ridiculous thing,the best men everywhere to keep taverns for a time,or carry on retail trade,or do anything of that sort;or if,in consequence of some fate or necessity,the best women were compelled to follow similar callings,then we should know how agreeable and pleasant all these things are;and if all such occupations were managed on incorrupt principles,they would be honoured as we honour a mother or a nurse.But now that a man goes to desert places and builds bouses which can only be reached be long journeys,for the sake of retail trade,and receives strangers who are in need at the welcome resting-place,and gives them peace and calm when they are tossed by the storm,or cool shade in the heat;and then instead of behaving to them as friends,and showing the duties of hospitality to his guests,treats them as enemies and captives who are at his mercy,and will not release them until they have paid the most unjust,abominable,and extortionate ransom-these are the sort of practices,and foul evils they are,which cast a reproach upon the succour of adversity.And the legislator ought always to be devising a remedy for evils of this nature.There is an ancient saying,which is also a true one-"To fight against two opponents is a difficult thing,"as is seen in diseases and in many other cases.And in this case also the war is against two enemies-wealth and poverty;one of whom corrupts the soul of man with luxury,while the other drives him by pain into utter shamelessness.What remedy can a city of sense find against this disease?In the first place,they must have as few retail traders as possible;and in the second place,they must assign the occupation to that class of men whose corruption will be the least injury to the state;and in the third place,they must devise some way whereby the followers of these occupations themselves will not readily fall into habits of unbridled shamelessness and meanness.
After this preface let our law run as follows,and may fortune favour us:-No landowner among the Magnetes,whose city the God is restoring and resettling-no one,that is,of the 5040families,shall become a retail trader either voluntarily or involuntarily;neither shall he be a merchant,or do any service for private persons unless they equally serve him,except for his father or his mother,and their fathers and mothers;and in general for his elders who are freemen,and whom he serves as a freeman.Now it is difficult to determine accurately the things which are worthy or unworthy of a freeman,but let those who have obtained the prize of virtue give judgment about them in accordance with their feelings of right and wrong.He who in any way shares in the illiberality of retail trades may be indicted for dishonouring his race by any one who likes,before those who have been judged to be the first in virtue;and if he appear to throw dirt upon his father's house by an unworthy occupation,let him be imprisoned for a year and abstain from that sort of thing;and if he repeat the offence,for two years;and every time that he is convicted let the length of his imprisonment be doubled.This shall be the second law:-He who engages in retail trade must be either a metic or a stranger.And a third law shall be:-In order that the retail trader who dwells in our city may be as good or as little bad as possible,the guardians of the law shall remember that they are not only guardians of those who may be easily watched and prevented from becoming lawless or bad,because they are wellborn and bred;but still more should they have a watch over those who are of another sort,and follow pursuits which have a very strong tendency to make men bad.And,therefore,in respect of the multifarious occupations of retail trade,that is to say,in respect of such of them as are allowed to remain,because they seem to be quite necessary in a state-about these the guardians of the law should meet and take counsel with those who have experience of the several kinds of retail trade,as we before commanded,concerning adulteration (which is a matter akin to this),and when they meet they shall consider what amount of receipts,after deducting expenses,will produce a moderate gain to the retail trades,and they shall fix in writing and strictly maintain what they find to be the right percentage of profit;this shall be seen to by the wardens of the agora,and by the wardens of the city,and by the wardens of the country.And so retail trade will benefit every one,and do the least possible injury to those in the state who practise it.
