ANCIENT GREECE AND SLAVES ZABOROWSKI. 603 



mines of Laurium, made 100 talents ($115,000), an enormous return, 

 a colossal fortune for that period. 



IMining concessions were generally mucli parceled out, and there 

 was little mining done in Greece, some silver at Siphnus; gold at 

 Cyprus, at Thaos, on the coast of Tlu^ace, in Asia, in Colchis, in 

 L3^dia; and copper in Euboea, in Argos, at Sicyon, and especially at 

 Cj^prus. All the miners were slaves. 



In the inheritance of a certam Conon there was a factory with some 

 slaves makuig ordmary textile fabrics and a shop with some druggist 

 slaves. 



The incomes of citizens were thus dependent on the work of slave 

 weavers, cutlers, pharmacists, etc. There is mentioned a workshop 

 with 120 slave forgemen or smiths. 



The shoemakers worked by a certam Timarque yielded him each 

 day 2 oboles (about 5 cents) per head, or 120 drachmas (S1G.50) per 

 year. The father of Demosthenes had a fortune of 14 talents ($16,000), 

 which was essentially personal j)roperty, as follows: Two shops, one 

 of 32 cutlers, yielding 30 mmes, or 3,000 drachmas ($420), the other 

 of bed makers, yielding 22 mines, or 2,200 drachmas ($305); quan- 

 tities of raw materials, such as ivory, iron, and copper, yielding 150 

 mines, or 15,000 drachmas; a house, 30 mines, or 3,000 drachmas; 

 some furniture, 100 mines, or 8,000 drachmas; a trust of a talent, 

 yieldmg 700 drachmas ($97); a maritime trust of 7,000 drachmas; 

 a bank deposit of 2,400 drachmas, and various loans yielding 6,000 

 drachmas. Besides the above and exclusive of some houses and 

 some important unsettled accounts Demosthenes also inherited from 

 his father 15,366 francs ($2,965) m income. This was at IS per cent. 



One is a little surprised at such amounts. Antl what surprises more 

 is to see such emment capitalists with the same versat'dity as those 

 of our own day and engaged m such varied affairs. Some fortunes 

 were composed only of credits. Whence it follows that commercial 

 credit was extensive and that there were banks for maldng loans. 



Maritime commercial enterprises were, in fact, undertaken on ad- 

 vances of funds by outfitters and silent partners, advances which, in 

 proportion to the risks mcurred, gave in every case some assurance 

 of very great profit. The city of Athens made loans to some ex- 

 peditions charged to search its corn in Egypt, m Sicily, and the 

 Pontus, and skins, wool, and salt provisions in the Pontus, whither, 

 on the other hand, Athens exported on one occasion as many as 

 3,000 amjjhoras of \vh\e. 



We find also that the citizens in these profitable operations played 

 only a secondary r6le, since their ideal was to do nothing themselves. 

 Their number at once diminished and in a manner that became 

 important. 



