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What is Aristotle’s view on trade? Essay
Aristotle argues that the art of exchanging goods or services in the pretext of trade is not good. According to the author, there are several ways through which individuals can acquire wealth. For example, exchanging goods can take place between two people if they agree to do so even without participating in actual trade.
As it stands now, the society has engaged itself in trading activities using minted coins and notes called money. As much as an individual may have a lot of money, it is still possible for that person to perish in hunger. This implies that retail trade is only in place for convenience purpose and therefore not necessary at all.
Aristotle also elaborates that obtaining wealth should be done naturally. In other words, individuals and families should only engage in natural ways of acquiring wealth.
When people carry out trading activities either at a local or regional level, they only end up oppressing each other because retail trade can never be a natural way of securing riches.
Moreover, if exchanging wealth is indeed useful, then the practice should have stopped immediately after people had gathered enough wealth. However, it appears that trading activities will never come to an end. This is the reason why Aristotle claims that the practice is not useful in the face of humanity.
The author also notes that there are two main modes through which wealth can be obtained. These are retail trade and household management. Aristotle asserts that household management is necessary and honorable and therefore, families should never engage in retail trade.
When people take part in retail trade, they eventually glorify money instead of the vital goods and services. Initially, retail trade never used to exist. It only grew in significance as the society continued to expand.
