Looking back on the history of ancient economic speculation，we see that，as might be anticipated a priori ，the resultsattained in that field by the Greek and Roman writers were very scanty.As Dü；hring has well remarked，the questions withwhich the science has to do were regarded by the ancient thinkers rather from their political than their properly economicside.This we have already pointed out with respect to their treatment of the subject of population，and the same may be seenin the case of the doctrine of the division of labour，with which Plato and Aristotle are in some degree occupied.They regardthat principle as a basis of social classification，or use it in showing that society is founded on a spontaneous co-operation ofdiverse activities.From the strictly economic point of view，there are three important propositions which can be enunciatedrespecting that division：--(1)that its extension within any branch of production makes the products cheaper；(2)that it islimited by the extent of the market；and (3)that it can be carried further in manufactures than in agriculture.But we shalllook in vain for these propositions in the ancient writers；the first alone might be inferred from their discussions of thesubject.It has been the tendency especially of German scholars to magnify unduly the extent and value of the contributionsof antiquity to economic knowledge.The Greek and Roman authors ought certainly not to be omitted in any account of theevolution of this branch of study.But it must be kept steadily in view that we find in them only first hints or rudiments ofgeneral economic truths，and that the science is essentially a modern one.We shall indeed see hereafter that it could not haveattained its definitive constitution before our own time.(3)NOTES：
1."Locis，quae nunc，vix seminario exiguo militum relicto，servitia Romana ab solitudine vindicant."--Liv.vi.12."Villaruminfinita spatia."Tac.Ann .iii.53.
2."Opifices omnes in sordida arte versantur；nec enim quidquam ingenuum habere potest officina."Cic.de Off .i.42.
"Mercatura，si tenuis est，sordida putanda est：sin magna et copiosa，multa undique apportans multisque sine vanitateimpertiens，non est admodum vituperanda."--Ibid."Quaestus omnis Patribus indecorus visus est."Liv.xxi.633.On the Economic doctrines of the Ancients see Roscher's Essay Ueber das Verhä；ltniss der National鱧onomie zumklassischen Alterthume in his Ansichten der Volkswirthschaft (1861).
