| Xenophon(430 BC--354 BC)is a famous historian in ancient Greece.His writings covered many aspects,including history,politics and economy.Xenophon,as pioneer of western economic philosophy,first use the word " oikonomos ".Xenophon’s economic thought is mainly included in Oeconomicus and Ways and Means,and is also slightly mentioned in books such as Cyropaedia and Memorabilia.His economic thought has influenced Adam Smith,Quesnay and other western economists,and made great contributions to the development of western economic thought.After the Social War,Athens suffered another heavy loss in politics and economy after the Peloponnesian War.Many Athenian intellectual elites,such as Xenophon,Isocrates and Plato,actively sought a new way for the development of the city-state.In 355 BC,Xenophon wrote Ways and Means.Xenophon,in which he put forward various measures to increase income and alleviate financial predicament of Athens.Xenophon hopes that the leaders of Athens would lead the city out of crisis in a peaceful and just way.Based on Ways and Means,this thesis emphasizes on the analysis of political,economic and social situation of Athens in the 4th century BC,and to investigating Xenophon’s thought of increasing the financial revenue of Athens from different perspectives.The thesis is divided into three chapters.The first chapter focuses on the content and creation background of Xenophon’s Ways and Means.After the Peloponnesian War,Athens faced a severe international and domestic situation.The impact of the Corinthian War and the Social War made an extremely adverse economic situation in Athens,and result in a financial crisis.Xenophon wrote The Income of Athens in order to find a peaceful development path for Athens.The second chapter focuses on Xenophon’s measures to increase Athenian revenue,including making full use of Attica’s natural resources,attracting more Metics to Athens,improving the business environment of Athens,expanding the production scale of mining industry and increasing financial revenue in a peaceful way.The third chapter mainly analyzes the significance of Xenophon’ thought of increasing the financial revenue of Athens.Part of Xenophon’s plan to increase Athens’ financial revenue was actually adopted by the Athenians,while the other part was not feasible,so it was not implemented.But on the whole,Xenophon’ thought of increasing the financial revenue of Athens was of great significance to the Athens polis.Finally,it compares Xenophon’s thought with those of Isocrates and Plato,and explores the unique value of Xenophon’ thought of increasing the financial revenue of Athens.In Ways and Means,Xenophon put forward a series of measures to increase Athens’ financial revenue from the perspectives of natural resources,Metics,commerce,mining and so on.The main idea is to develop the economy of Athens in a peaceful and just way.Although Xenophon’s thought of increasing financial revenue of Athens was a guide to readers under the framework of democratic system,based on multiple factors such as practical feasibility,only a small part of his measures of increasing financial revenue of Athens were adopted by the Athenians.However,Xenophon provided Athens with a more feasible and alternative peaceful development plan to the empire in a true sense,and the significance of Xenophon’ thought of increasing the financial revenue of Athens is worthy of recognition. |
