BOOK IV. 91 



within the memory of our fathers, miners have divided a silver mine, and 

 similarly the tunnel at Schneeberg, first of all into one hundred and twenty- 

 eight shares, of which one hundred and twenty-six are the property of 

 private owners in the mines or tunnels, one belongs to the State and one 

 to the Church ; while in Joachimsthal only one hundred and twent3'-two 

 shares of the mines or tunnels are the property of private owners, four 

 are proprietary shares, and the State and Church each have one in the 

 same way. To these there has lately been added in some places one share 

 for the most needy of the population, which makes one hundred and twenty- 

 nine shares. It is only the private owners of mines who pay contributions. 

 A proprietary holder, though he holds as many as four shares such as I have 

 described, does not pay contributions, but gratuitiously supplies the owners 

 of the mines with sufficient wood from his forests for timbering, machinery, 

 buildings, and smelting ; nor do those belonging to the State, Church, and 

 the poor pay contributions, but the proceeds are used to build or repair 

 public works and sacred buildings, and to support the most needy with the 

 profits which they draw from the mines. Furthermore, in our State, the 

 one hundred and twenty-eighth share has begun to be divided into two, 

 four, or eight parts, or even into three, six, twelve, or smaller parts. This 

 is done when one mine is created out of two, for then the owner who formerly 

 possessed one-half becomes owner of one-fourth ; he who possessed one- 

 fourth, of one-eighth ; he who possessed one-third, of one-sixth ; he who 

 possessed one-sixth, of one-twelfth. Since our countrymen caU a mine a 

 symposium, that is, a drinking bout, we are accustomed to call the money which 

 the owners subscribe a symholum, or a contribution^". For, just as those who 

 go to a banquet [symposium) give contributions [symbola), so those who purpose 

 making large profits from mining are accustomed to contribute toward the 

 expenditure. However, the manager of the mine assesses the contributions 

 of the owners annually, or for the most part quarterly, and as often he 

 renders an account of receipts and expenses. At Freiberg in Meissen the 

 old practice was for the manager to exact a contribution from the owners 

 every week, and every week to distribute among them the profits of the 

 mines, but this practice during almost the last fifteen years has been so far 

 changed that contribution and distribution are made four^^ times each 

 year. Large or small contributions are imposed according to the number 

 of workmen which the mine or tunnel requires ; as a result, those who 

 possess many shares provide many contributions. Four times a year the 

 owners contribute to the cost, and four times during the year the profits of 

 the mines are distributed among them ; these are sometimes large, some- 

 times small, according as there is more or less gold or silver or other metal 

 dug out. Indeed, from the St. George mine in Schneeberg the miners extracted 

 so much silver in a quarter of a year that silver cakes, which were worth 



^°A symposium is a banquet, and a symbola is a contribution of money to a banquet. 

 This sentence is probably a play on the old German Zeche, mine, this being also a term for 

 a drinking bout. 



'^In the Latin text this is " three " — obviously an error. 



