Quantcast
  Due to a new server, slow response may occur for which we apologize Portal logo
Login/Register
Bactrian Gold Treasure from Afghanistan, coming soon....
/gemstones/king-precious-stones-metals/page_130 - 2
 

Ch. 3: Argentum, Silver

Ch. 3: Argentum, Silver Page of 377 Ch. 3: Argentum, Silver Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
120 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS METALS, &c.
him in gold. Lucan (vi. 402) quotes a tradition pointing to a not very distant locality, which assigns this invention to Itoneus, a Thessalian king—
These mines at Laurium were in their fullest activity just before the Peloponnesian war. Xenophon mentions that Nicias (the commander of the ill-starred expedition to Syracuse) kept a thousand slaves there, always maintaining the same number, whom he hired out to a Thracian, Sosias, for one oboi per man per day clear of taxes. This net return would make 166-4/6 drachmae daily (about 7l.) : a large sum, indicative of a gross result yielding corresponding profits to the Thracian lessee, who bad to feed these miners, pay a royalty to the State, and supply all the other expenses of the mining operations. Similarly Hip-ponicus had six hundred slaves let out at one mina (3l. 5s.) per day, and Philemonides half that number. These wealthy Athenians were too cautious to embark in mining operations themselves : the actual fanners of the mines were usually foreigners, as in the case named—Thracians, who had studied the business in the ancient workings of their own country. The State encouraged these opera­tions as much as possible by allowing foreigners to embark in them on an equal footing with the natives. These lessees under the State paid their royalties in the form of a poll-tax on every slave employed; an excellent plan for preventing their cheating the revenue. Xenophon could devise no better expedient for restoring the dilapi­dated Athenian finances than that the State should purchase slaves as a national concern (the South Sea Asiento antici-
Ch. 3: Argentum, Silver Page of 377 Ch. 3: Argentum, Silver
Suggested Illustrations
Other Chapters you may find useful
Other Books on this topic
bullet Tag
This Page