1841.J 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



193 



XENOPHON ON THE ATHENIAN MINES. 



Extracted from the Translation hy Walter Moyle, Esq., of the 

 Pamphlet on the Improvement of the Revenue of jithens. 



Our silver mines alone, if rightly inaiiiiged, besides all the other 

 branches of our revenue, would be an inestimable treasure to the pub- 

 lic. But for the benefit of those wlio are unskilled in inquiries of 

 this nature, I design to premise some general considerations upon the 

 true state and value of our silver mines, that the public, upon a right 

 information, may proceed to the taking of such measures and counsel 

 as may improve them to the best advantage. 



No one ever pretended from tradition, or the earliest accounts of 

 time, to determine when the mines were first begun to be wrought, 

 which is a proof of their antiquity; and yet, ancient as they are, the 

 heaps of rubbish which have been dug out of them and lie above 

 ground, bear no proportion to the vast quantities which still remain 

 below, nor does there appear any sensible decay or diminution in our 

 mines ; but as we dig on, we still discover fresh veins of silver ore in 

 all parts, and Vihen we had most labourers at work in the mines, we 

 foimd that we had still business for more hands than were employed. 

 Nor do I find that the adventurers in the mines retrench the numbers 

 of their workmen, but purchase as many new slaves as they can get ; 

 for their gains are greater or less, in proportion to the nnraber of 

 hands they employ. And this is the only profession I know of where 

 the undertakers are never envied, be their stock or profits ever so 

 extraordinary, because their gains never interfere with those of their 

 fellow traders. 



Every husbandman knows how many yoke of oxen and servants are 

 necessary to cultivate liis fanu, and if he employs more than he has 

 occasion for, reckons himself a loser ; but no dealer in the silver mines 

 ever thought he had hands enough to set to work. 



For there is this difference between this and all other professions ; 

 that whereas in other callings, for instance, braziers and blacksmiths, 

 when their trades are overstocked, they are undone, because the price 

 of their commodities is lowered of course, by the multitude of sellers ; 

 and likewise a good year of corn, and a plentiful vintage, for the same 

 reason do hurt to the farmers, and force them to quit their employ- 

 ment, and set up public houses, or turn merchants or bankers. But 

 here the case is quite otherwise, for the more ore is found, and the 

 more silver is wrought and made, the more adventurers come in, and 

 the more hands are employed in our mines. A master of a family in- 

 deed, when he is well provided with furniture and household goods, 

 buys no more, but no man was ever so overstocked with silver, as not 

 to desire a farther increase ; if there are any who have laore than 

 their occasions require, they hoard up the rest with as much pleasure 

 as if they actually made use of it. And when a nation is in flourishing 

 circumstances no one is at a loss how to employ his money ; the men 

 lay it out in fine armour, in horses, and in maguificent houses and 

 buildings; women lay it out in great equipages, costly habits and rich 

 clothes. And in accidents of war, when our lauds lie fallow and un- 

 cultivated, or in a public dearth and scarcity, what reserve have we 

 left to apply to but silver, to purchase necessaries for our subsistence, 

 or hire auxiliaries for our defence? If it be objected that gold is as 

 useful as silver, I will not dispute it; but of this I am sure that plenty 

 of gold always lowered its value, and advanced the price of silver. 



I have insisted the longer upon these general reflections to encour- 

 age adventurers of all kinds, to employ as manv hands as possible in a 

 trade so advantageous, from these plain considerations that the mines 

 can never be exhausted, nor can silver ever lose its value. 



That the public has known this long before is evident from our laws, 

 which allow foreigners to work our mines upon the same terms* and 

 conditions as our own citizens enjoy. 



But to draw this discourse more immediatelv to the subject of my 

 present consideration, which is the mainteuance of our citizens, I will 

 begin to propose those ways and means by which the silver mines may 

 be improved to the highest benefit and advantage to the public. Nor 

 do I set up for the vanity of being admired for an author of new dis- 

 coveries ; for that part of my following discourse, which relates to the 

 examples of the present age, lies obvious to all the world ; as for what 

 is past it is matter of fact, and every man who would be at the pains 

 of inquiring might inform himself. 



It is very striuige that after so many precedents of private citizens 

 of Athens, who have made their fortunes by the mines, the public 

 should never tliink of following their example ; for we who have heard 

 that Nicias, the son of Niceratus, had a thousand slaves employed in 

 the mines, whom he let out to Sosias the Thracian, upon condition to 



' This was a irlhute of a Iwentj' -fourth part of thf silver found, according 

 to Suidas. 



receive an obolus a day, clear of all charges for every head, and that 

 the same complement of workmen should be always kept on foot. In 

 like manner Hipponicus had six hundred slav.'s let out at the same 

 rate, which yielded him a revenue of a mina a day, and Philemonides 

 three hundred, who brought him in half a mina a day, and many others 

 made the same advantage, in pro;iortion to the number of slaves they 

 possessed. But what need have we to appeal to precedents of an 

 older date, when at this day we have so many instances before our 

 eves of the same nature ? 



' In the proposals which I offer, there is only one thing new, namely, 

 that as private men have a constant revenue coming in from the slave* 

 whom they let out to work in the mines; so the public, in imitation of 

 their example, should purchase as many slaves to be employed in the 

 same manner, as will treble the number of their own citizens. 

 (Xenophon then goes to argue on the advantages of this plan.) 

 To demonstrate that the mines would take up a greater proportion 

 of slaves to work them, I appeal to the authority of all the living wit- 

 nesses who remember, what numbers of workmen were employed in 

 them before the faking of Deceleat by the Lacedemonians. And our 

 silver mines that have been wrought for so many ages, with such num- 

 bers of hands, and continue still so far from being drained or exhausted, 

 that we can discover no visible difference in their present state from 

 the accounts our ancestors have delivered down to us, are undeniable 

 proofs of my assertion. And their present condition is a good argu- 

 ment that there never can be more hands at work in the mines than 

 there is employment for ; for we dig on still without finding any bottom 

 or end of our mines, or decay of our silver ore. And at this day we 

 may open now mines as well as in former ages, and no one can deter- 

 mine whether the new mines may not prove richer than the old ones. 

 If any one demands why our miners are not so forward in pursuit of 

 new discoveries, as formerly; I answer, it is not long since that the 

 mines have begun to be wrought afresh, and the present adventurers 

 are not rich enough to run the risk of such an undertaking. For if 

 they discover a rich mine, their fortunes are made ; but if thoy fail, 

 they lose all the charges they have been at; and this consideration 

 chiefly has discouraged the adventurers from trying an experiment so 

 dangerous. 



(Xenophon here urges upon the state to take measures for discover- 

 ing new mines.) 



Companies of private adventurers may carry on the same trade in a 

 jointstock, nor is there any danger that they and the national company 

 will interfere with one another ; but as confederates are strengthened 

 by their mutual assistance to each other, so the more adventnrers of 

 all kinds are employed in the mines, so much larger will be the g.iins 

 and advantages to all. 



(Our author again dwells upon the advantages of his plan, and in 

 allusion to the probable effects of a foreign war he says) 



And I have reason to believe that it is possible to work our mines 

 in the conjuncture of a foreign war, for they are covered on the south 

 by a strong citadel in Anaphlystus, and on the north sea by another in 

 Thoricus, and these two fortresses lie at the distance of but GO fur- 

 longs from one another. But if a third fort were built upon the top 

 of a mountain, in the middle of the two former, the three works would 

 meet together, and other silver mines would be inclosed in a circle, 

 and guarded on all sides, and the workmen at the first notice of an in- 

 vasion might retire to a place of safety. But if we are invaded by 

 more numerous armies, our enemies may make themselves masters of 

 our corn, wine, and cattle that lie without the works, but if they possess 

 themselves of our silver mines, what can they find to carry off more 

 than a heap of stones and rubbish ? But how is it possible for our 

 enemies to make an inroad upon our mines? for the city of Megara, 

 which lies nearest is above 600 furlongs from them ; and Thebes 

 which is nearer them than any but Megara, is more than tiOO furlongs 

 distant from them. 



(We here again omit what Xenophon says about the advantages of 

 his plan.) 



The revenue arising from our slaves would not only make a con- 

 siderable article in the charge of maintaining our citizens, but by the 

 vast concourse of people from all parts, the customs of the fairs ;md 

 markets at the mines, and the rent of our public buildings and melting 

 houses, and many other heads, would produce a mighty income to the 

 state. The state, upon such an establishment, would be peopled with 

 a prodigious number of inhabitants, and the value of lands at the mines 

 would be as high as those that lie near Athens. 



When 20,000 Athenian slares deserted. 



2 D 



