On Revenues | Page 8

same time a rise in the value of silver.
[8] Lit. "I know, however."
The above facts are, I think, conclusive. They encourage us not only to introduce as much human labour as possible into the mines, but to extend the scale of operations within, by increase of plant, etc., in full assurance that there is no danger either of the ore itself being exhausted or of silver becoming depreciated. And in advancing these views I am merely following a precedent set me by the state herself. So it seems to me, since the state permits any foreigner who desires it to undertake mining operations on a footing of equality[9] with her own citizens.
[9] Or, "at an equal rent with that which she imposes on her own citizens." See Boeckh, "P. E. A." IV. x. (p. 540, Eng. tr.)
But, to make my meaning clearer on the question of maintenance, I will at this point explain in detail how the silver mines may be furnished and extended so as to render them much more useful to the state. Only I would premise that I claim no sort of admiration for anything which I am about to say, as though I had hit upon some recondite discovery. Since half of what I have to say is at the present moment still patent to the eyes of all of us, and as to what belongs to past history, if we are to believe the testimony of our fathers,[10] things were then much of a piece with what is going on now. No, what is really marvellous is that the state, with the fact of so many private persons growing wealthy at her expense, and under her very eyes, should have failed to imitate them. It is an old story, trite enough to those of us who have cared to attend to it, how once on a time Nicias, the son of Niceratus, owned a thousand men in the silver mines,[11] whom he let out to Sosias, a Thracian, on the following terms. Sosias was to pay him a net obol a day, without charge or deduction, for every slave of the thousand, and be[12] responsible for keeping up the number perpetually at that figure. So again Hipponicus[13] had six hundred slaves let out on the same principle, which brought him in a net mina[14] a day without charge or deduction. Then there was Philemonides, with three hundred, bringing him in half a mina, and others, I make no doubt there were, making profits in proportion to their respective resources and capital.[15] But there is no need to revert to ancient history. At the present moment there are hundreds of human beings in the mines let out on the same principle.[16] And given that my proposal were carried into effect, the only novelty in it is that, just as the individual in acquiring the ownership of a gang of slaves finds himself at once provided with a permanent source of income, so the state, in like fashion, should possess herself of a body of public slaves, to the number, say, of three for every Athenian citizen.[17] As to the feasability of our proposals, I challenge any one whom it may concern to test the scheme point by point, and to give his verdict.
[10] Reading {para ton pateron}, with Zurborg, after Wilamowitz- Mollendorf.
[11] See "Mem." II. v. 2; Plut. "Nicias," 4; "Athen." vi. 272. See an important criticism of Boeckh's view by Cornewall Lewis, translation of "P. E. A." p. 675 foll.
[12] Reading {parekhein}, or if {pareikhen}, transl. "whilst he himself kept up the number." See H. hagen in "Journ. Philol." x. 19, pp. 34-36; also Zurborg, "Comm." p. 28.
[13] Son of Callias.
[14] = L4:1:3 = 600 ob.
[15] Or, "whose incomes would vary in proportion to their working capital."
[16] See Jebb, "Theophr." xxvi. 21.
[17] According to the ancient authorities the citizens of Athens numbered about 21,000 at this date, which would give about 63,000 as the number of state-slaves contemplated for the purposes of the scheme. See Zurborg, "Comm." p. 29. "At a census taken in B.C. 309 the number of slaves was returned at 400,000, and it does not seem likely that there were fewer at any time during the classical period."--"A Companion to School Classics" (James Gow), p. 101, xiii. "Population of Attica."
With regard to the price then of the men themselves, it is obvious that the public treasury is in a better position to provide funds than any private individuals. What can be easier than for the Council[18] to invite by public proclamation all whom it may concern to bring their slaves, and to buy up those produced? Assuming the purchase to be effected, is it credible that people will hesitate to hire from the state rather than from the private owner, and actually