第8章

Or, "with this influx (multiplying) of labourers there will be a corresponding increase in the demand for labour on the part of the lessees." Or, "got their mining establishments started." Or, "of course they will, considering the amount of fixed capital at stake," or, "since they have large resources at their back." I have adopted Zurborg's stopping of this sentence.

See "Mem." II. viii. 1, for an illustrative case.

Let it be granted, however, that at first a nucleus of twelve hundred slaves is formed. It is hardly too sanguine a supposition that out of the profits alone, within five or six years this number may be increased to at least six thousand. Again, out of that number of six thousand--supposing each slave to being in an obol a day clear of all expenses--we get a revenue of sixty talents a year. And supposing twenty talents out of this sum laid out on the purchase of more slaves, there will be forty talents left for the state to apply to any other purpose it may find advisable. By the time the round number of ten thousand is reached the yearly income will amount to a hundred talents.

"Out of the income so derived." Or, "full complement."As a matter of fact, the state will receive much more than these figures represent, as any one here will bear me witness who can remember what the dues derived from slaves realised before the troubles at Decelea. Testimony to the same effect is borne by the fact, that in spite of the countless number of human beings employed in the silver mines withinthewholeperiod,theminespresentexactlythesame appearance to-day as they did within the recollection of our forefathers. And once more everything that is taking place to-day tends to prove that, whatever the number of slaves employed, you will never have more than the works can easily absorb. The miners find no limit of depth in sinking shafts or laterally in piercing galleries. To open cuttings in new directions to-day is just as possible as it was in former times. In fact no one can takeon himself to say whether there is more ore in the regions already cut into, or in those where the pick has not yet struck. Well then, it may be asked, why is it that there is not the same rush to make new cuttings now as in former times? The answer is, because the people concerned with the mines are poorer nowadays. The attempt to restart operations, renew plant, etc., is of recent date, and any one who ventures to open up a new area runs a considerable risk. Supposing he hits upon a productive field, he becomes a rich man, but supposing he draws a blank, he loses the whole of his outlay; and that is a danger which people of the present time are shy of facing.

Or, "a very much larger sum than we have calculated on." Lit. "many times over that sum." Or, "tax." See below, S. 49; for the whole matter see Thuc. vii. 27, vi. 91; Xen. "Mem." III. vi. 12, in reference to B.C. 413, when Decelea had been fortified. As to the wholesale desertion of slaves, "more than twenty thousand slaves had deserted, many of them artisans," according to Thucydides.

Or, "the days of Decelea." Lit. "the incidents of Decelea." I.e. "of their working since mining began." Lit. "are just the same to-day as our forefathers recollected them to be in their time." Or, "whether the tracts already explored or those not yet opened are the more prolific."It is a difficulty, but it is one on which, I believe, I can offer some practical advice. I have a plan to suggest which will reduce the risk of opening up new cuttings to a minimum.

Or, "I have a plan to make the opening of new cuttings as safe as possible."The citizens of Athens are divided, as we all know, into ten tribes. Let the state then assign to each of these ten tribes an equal number of slaves, and let the tribes agree to associate their fortunes and proceed to open new cuttings. What will happen? Any single tribe hitting upon a productive lode will be the means of discovering what is advantageous to all. Or, supposing two or three, or possibly the half of them, hit upon a lode,clearly these several operations will proportionally be more remunerative still. That the whole ten will fail is not at all in accordance with what we should expect from the history of the past. It is possible, of course, for private persons to combine in the same way, and share their fortunes and minimise their risks. Nor need you apprehend, sirs, that a state mining company, established on this principle, will prove a thorn in the side of the private owner, or the private owner prove injurious to the state. But rather like allies who render each other stronger the more they combine, so in these silver mines, the greater number of companies at work the larger the riches they will discover and disinter.

"To form similar joint-stock companies." See "Cyneg." v. 5.

Or, "deriving strength from combination." Co-operators.

Reading {ekphoresousi}, after Cobet.