Abstract
In the same way that the concept of social mobility was unknown to classical antiquity so too was the concept of capital unknown, whatever one means by it (but in any case goods or money invested in order to advance personal or collective wealth). Plato, Aristotle, Cato the Censor, Cicero, Seneca and Plutarch all reviled ‘usury’ (which, like the word foenus, signified interest in a general sense). The Greeks and Romans were certainly acquainted with money, but they did not conceive of the idea of systematically making it bear fruit, and they mistrusted anyone who acquired a fortune suddenly or unexpectedly. In the town squares, forms of consumer credit were practised but the need to finance production was not felt in any way. Such activities did not involve free citizens (cives) but freedmen, and were generally stigmatized. Trade was considered a necessary evil rather than an activity to be encouraged, and the intellectuals held various attitudes ranging from disgust to resignation. By contrast, the autarchic ménage of the farm founded on slave labour was extolled above all else and, once basic needs had been provided for, otium was considered preferable to negotium.1
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© 2008 Francesco Boldizzoni
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Boldizzoni, F. (2008). Capital as Money: The Emergence of Modernity. In: Means and Ends. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230584143_2
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