Xenophon, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
It is a conversation about the management of a household and estate, and about the sort of man who can do it well. I set it down as a talk between Socrates and Critobulus, and the beginning is the plainest sort of question: is economy the name of a particular kind of knowledge, like medicine or carpentry or smithying?1 Critobulus thinks it is, and so we proceed as we would with any craft.
If it is a craft, it has its proper work. The good economist manages his own house well, and if another man's house is put in his hands he can manage that as skilfully, just as a carpenter can build for another as for himself. Such a man might even be paid a salary for it, and a large one if he creates a surplus and improves the property.2 Socrates then asks what a "house" is, whether the dwelling only or everything a man has got, and Critobulus says everything, even what lies in another part of the world.2
Enemies are included in that count, which shows how the question opens out. From there Socrates reports an earlier talk of his own with Ischomachus, a man the city calls "beautiful and good." I found him sitting idle in the colonnade, which was unlike him, and asked what conduct had earned him the title. He smiled, a little pleased, and said that when the state wants a trireme fitted out or a chorus trained, nobody asks for the gentleman; the summons is served on plain Ischomachus, the son of So-and-so.3
He does not spend his days indoors, he said, because his wife is quite capable of managing the domestic affairs without him.3 That leads into the heart of the book, how he trained her. She came to him not yet fifteen, brought up to see and hear as little as possible and to ask the fewest questions, knowing how to take wool and make a dress and little else, though she had been soundly taught self-control in appetite.3
What he made of her, and how, is what the dialogue unfolds. Ischomachus also lays out the order of a well-lived life, because for him health, honour in war and increase of wealth all hang together. He begins with service to the gods, praying for health and strength, honour in the city, goodwill among friends, safety with renown in war, and riches won without reproach.4
He enjoys wealth for what it lets him do: to honour the gods magnificently, to help friends in their wants, and to leave his city unadorned by nothing riches can bestow.4 A man who works off his meals by right toil keeps his body strong, the man who practises the arts of war preserves his life with honour, and the man who seals his ears to soft seductions sees his house increase.4
Last, the book turns to farming, which Ischomachus calls a generous art: of supreme utility, sweet to practise, rich in beauty, acceptable to gods and men, and the easiest of the arts to learn.5 Socrates presses him to teach it in earnest, because the skilled farmer grows wealthy and the unskilled man, for all his pains, lives in want.5 In short, the work asks what it takes to rule a house, a wife, servants and land, and answers that it takes knowledge, order, piety and honest labour, which are also what make a man fit to be trusted with more.
is "economy," like the words "medicine," "carpentry," "building," "smithying," "metal-working," and so forth, the name of a particular kind of knowledge or science?The Economist (Oeconomicus)
a large salary he would be entitled to earn if, after paying the necessary expenses of the estate entrusted to him, he can create a surplus and improve the property.The Economist (Oeconomicus)
I certainly do not spend my days indoors, if for no other reason, because my wife is quite capable of managing our domestic affairs without my aid.The Economist (Oeconomicus)
I begin with service rendered to the gods; and strive to regulate my conduct so that grace may be given me, in answer to my prayers, to attain to health, and strength of body, honour in my own city, goodwill among my friends, safety with renown in war, and of riches increase, won without reproach.The Economist (Oeconomicus)
is it not a proof of something noble in it, that being of supreme utility, so sweet a craft to exercise, so rich in beauty, so acceptable alike to gods and men, the art of husbandry may further fairly claim to be the easiest of all the arts to learn?The Economist (Oeconomicus)