MONEY OF ATTICA. 



449 



of gold existed at all, it must equally have operated against their 

 procuring the metal for any purpose whatever ; whereas, this was so 

 little consonant to their practice, that we cannot estimate at less than 

 an hundred thousand pounds, the value of the gold which composed 

 the ornaments of a single statue. There must then have existed 

 some cause other than the difficulty or disadvantage in procuring the 

 metal which influenced the Athenians in their determination of so 

 rarely coining money from gold. 



Perhaps we may look for the cause of this practice in the mode 

 adopted of managing the silver mines of Laurium. Every citizen of 

 Athens wishing to become a proprietor in the mines belonging to 

 the republic, first purchased from the state a permission to commence 

 his operations, and ever after paid the 24th part* of the annual 

 produce of his labour into the public treasury. Hence it was mani- 

 festly the interest of the government, that nothing should impede 

 the progress and vigour of those employed in this pursuit -f*; and 

 Xenophon, who wrote at length on the means of improving the 

 administration and produce of the silver mines, recommended the 

 number of permissions to be very much increased J, and approves of 

 the conduct of the state in allowing foreigners, denizens of Athens, 

 to enjoy in this respect the same privileges with their own citizens. 



The currency of the silver money of Athens was almost universal, 

 owing to the deservedly high reputation for purity which it possessed; 



* Meurs. Them. Att. ii. c. 26. — Suidas, 'Ayp . peTixWov 8/xij. 



f We find from Demosthenes (in Phaenipp.) that income arising from the mines was 

 not considered as property, which obliged a citizen to contribute to the expenses of the 

 state. Some fortunes derived from this source were considerable ; Nicias let out to an 

 adventurer in the mines 1000 slaves; for whom he received 1000 oboli a day, or 166 

 drachmae, nearly jl. — E. 



% " Xenophon's work on the improvement of the revenues of the state is a chef-d'ceuvre 

 of its kind, and from it more light is to be had in relation to the political economy of the 

 Greeks, than from any thing I have seen ancient or modern. Steuart's Political Econ. i. 

 460. — The object which Xenophon had in view in that work, is pointed out by Casaubon : 

 " Librum ab eo hoc potissimum consilio scriptum esse, ut Athenienses ad fodiendas strenue 

 argenti fodinas hortaretur." Stanley ad Persas, 236. v. — E. 



3 M 



