The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

articles arose the other art of wealth getting,
namely, retail trade; which was at first probably a simple matter,
but became more complicated as soon as men learned by experience
whence and by what exchanges the greatest profit might be made.
Originating in the use of coin, the art of getting wealth is
generally thought to be chiefly concerned with it, and to be the
art which produces riches and wealth; having to consider how they
may be accumulated. Indeed, riches is assumed by many to be only a
quantity of coin, because the arts of getting wealth and retail
trade are concerned with coin. Others maintain that coined money is
a mere sham, a thing not natural, but conventional only, because,
if the users substitute another commodity for it, it is worthless,
and because it is not useful as a means to any of the necessities
of life, and, indeed, he who is rich in coin may often be in want
of necessary food. But how can that be wealth of which a man may
have a great abundance and yet perish with hunger, like Midas in
the fable, whose insatiable prayer turned everything that was set
before him into gold?
    Hence men seek after a better notion of riches and of the art of
getting wealth than the mere acquisition of coin, and they are
right. For natural riches and the natural art of wealth-getting are
a different thing; in their true form they are part of the
management of a household; whereas retail trade is the art of
producing wealth, not in every way, but by exchange. And it is
thought to be concerned with coin; for coin is the unit of exchange
and the measure or limit of it. And there is no bound to the riches
which spring from this art of wealth getting. As in the art of
medicine there is no limit to the pursuit of health, and as in the
other arts there is no limit to the pursuit of their several ends,
for they aim at accomplishing their ends to the uttermost (but of
the means there is a limit, for the end is always the limit), so,
too, in this art of wealth-getting there is no limit of the end,
which is riches of the spurious kind, and the acquisition of
wealth. But the art of wealth-getting which consists in household
management, on the other hand, has a limit; the unlimited
acquisition of wealth is not its business. And, therefore, in one
point of view, all riches must have a limit; nevertheless, as a
matter of fact, we find the opposite to be the case; for all
getters of wealth increase their hoard of coin without limit. The
source of the confusion is the near connection between the two
kinds of wealth-getting; in either, the instrument is the same,
although the use is different, and so they pass into one another;
for each is a use of the same property, but with a difference:
accumulation is the end in the one case, but there is a further end
in the other. Hence some persons are led to believe that getting
wealth is the object of household management, and the whole idea of
their lives is that they ought either to increase their money
without limit, or at any rate not to lose it. The origin of this
disposition in men is that they are intent upon living only, and
not upon living well; and, as their desires are unlimited they also
desire that the means of gratifying them should be without limit.
Those who do aim at a good life seek the means of obtaining bodily
pleasures; and, since the enjoyment of these appears to depend on
property, they are absorbed in getting wealth: and so there arises
the second species of wealth-getting. For, as their enjoyment is in
excess, they seek an art which produces the excess of enjoyment;
and, if they are not able to supply their pleasures by the art of
getting wealth, they try other arts, using in turn every faculty in
a manner contrary to nature. The quality of courage, for example,
is not intended to make wealth, but to inspire confidence; neither
is this the aim of the general’s or of the physician’s art; but the
one aims at victory and the other at health. Nevertheless, some men
turn every quality or art into a means of getting wealth; this they
conceive to be the end, and to the promotion of the end they think
all things must contribute.
    Thus, then, we have considered the art of wealth-getting which
is unnecessary, and why men want it; and also the necessary art of
wealth-getting, which we have seen to be different from the other,
and to be a natural part of the art of managing a household,
concerned with the provision of food, not, however, like the former
kind, unlimited,