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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: any private individuals. What can be easier than for the Council[18]
to invite by public proclamation all whom it may concern to bring
their slaves, and to buy up those produced? Assuming the purchase to
be effected, is it credible that people will hesitate to hire from the
state rather than from the private owner, and actually on the same
terms? People have at all events no hesitation at present in hiring
consecrated grounds, sacred victims,[19] houses, etc., or in
purchasing the right of farming taxes from the state. To ensure the
preservation of the purchased property, the treasury can take the same
securities precisely from the lessee as it does from those who
purchase the right of farming its taxes. Indeed, fraudulent dealing is
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