CHAP. IV. 



ROMAN MINING. 135 



period adopted into the civil law, all mines and 

 mineral deposits of gold or silver ore, or of pre- 

 cious stones, belonged, if on the public lands, 

 to the sovereign, and formed a part of his patri- 

 mony ; but if they were on private property, 

 they belonged to the owner of the land, subject 

 to the condition that, if worked by him, a tenth 

 part of the produce was to be delivered to the 

 prince ; but if worked by any other person, with 

 the consent of the owner, two tenths were to be 

 paid by the operator, one to the sovereign, and 

 one to the proprietor of the land 1 . 



As the Romans acquired the dominion in the 

 countries by conquest, they naturally assumed to 

 their government all the rights and possessions 

 which had appertained to the former sovereigns, 

 and, among them, the administration and advan- 

 tages derived from the mining departments of 

 those countries. 



The Romans were unskilled in mining, as in 

 all those arts which were not connected with 

 the practice of war. The mines in the con- 

 quered territories differed according to their lo- 

 cality, their depth, the nature of the earth be- 

 neath which they were to be explored, and the 

 practices by which they had been rendered 



1 See Gamboa's Commentaries on the Mining Ordinances 

 of Spain, translated by Heathfield, vol. i. p. 15. This work 

 contains much curious learning on a subject but little else- 

 where discussed. 



