trade in addition to or instead of farming, often had their workshops located within the house in a room facing the street. In addition to his plethora of economic and social responsibilities, the oikonomos would also be the representative of his oikos to the outside world. He would be expected to provide funds for religious festivals, attend important events such as births and marriages, as well as fulfill his civic duties as a member of the polis. Depending on the city, this might have included military service. The oikonomos was also expected to maintain relationships with other households in the polis. In the event of an emergency an oikonomos might be able to seek help from a neighbouring oikos. In return the oikonomos would be expected to provide material aid to these same neighbours in their own time of need. This effectively established a credit system for a pre-bank economy. Ancient thinkers on the concept of oikonomos Xenophon's Oeconomicus is one of the earliest sources to extensively discuss the management of a wealthy agrarian estate. Here, the role of the oikonomos largely concerned management of his household with the aim of accumulating and preserving wealth, rather than a relation to any modern sense of "economics". Socrates and Crito consider household management to be an art or science, and the former argues that the best oikonomos is the one who makes the best use of resources; one with an abundance of material wealth which is insufficient to satisfy his needs is functionally poorer than one with little wealth which satisfies him. In this portrayal, though Socrates figures his own property to be worth a hundredfold less than Crito's, he has enough to satisfy himself and friends who would help him if he did not; the latter has social obligations of sacrifice, patronage, entertaining guests, and financing potential wars. This leads Socrates to consider himself far wealthier than Crito. Meanwhile, Ischomachus, a "fair and good" upper-class farmer, focuses his instructions on household managing on the importance of ensuring his wife's submissiveness and of close supervision of the house, as well as on a thorough understanding of agricultural techniques. In short, Xenophon characterizes the oikonomos as holding power over children, slaves, wife, and property, along with the power to delegate authority to overseers; however, this account specifically concerns wealthy estates. Aristotle, however, argued that the role of "master of the house" is a