Some owners prefer to buy shares[1] in mines abounding in metals, rather than to be troubled themselves to search for the veins; these men employ an easier and less uncertain method of increasing their property. Although their hopes in the shares of one or another mine may be frustrated, the buyers of shares should not abandon the rest of the mines, for all the money expended will be recovered with interest from some other mine. They should not buy only high priced shares in those mines producing metals, nor should they buy too many in neighbouring mines where metal has not yet been found, lest, should fortune not respond, they may be exhausted by their losses and have nothing with which they may meet their expenses or buy other shares which may replace their losses. This calamity overtakes those who wish to grow suddenly rich from mines, and instead, they become very much poorer than before. So then, in the buying of shares, as in other matters, there should be a certain limit of expenditure which miners should set themselves, lest blinded by the desire for excessive wealth, they throw all their money away. Moreover, a prudent owner, before he buys shares, ought to go to the mine and carefully examine the nature of the vein, for it is very important that he should be on his guard lest fraudulent sellers of shares should deceive him. Investors in shares may perhaps become less wealthy, but they are more certain of some gain than those who mine for metals at their own expense, as they are more cautious in trusting to fortune. Neither ought miners to be altogether distrustful of fortune, as we see some are, who as soon as the shares of any mine begin to go up in
- ↑ Partes. Agricola, p. 89-91, describes in detail the organization and management of these share companies. See Note 8, p. 90.
Xenophon. (Essay on The Revenues, iv., 30). " I think, however, that I am able to give some advice with regard to this difficulty also (the risk of opening new mines), and to show how new operations may be conducted with the greatest safety. There are ten tribes at Athens, and if to each of these the State should assign an equal number of slaves, and the tribes should all make new cuttings, sharing their fortunes in common, then if but one tribe should make any useful discovery it would point out something profitable to the whole; but if two, three, or four, or half the number should make some discovery, it is plain that the works would be more profitable in proportion, and that they should all fail is contrary to all experience in past times." (Watson’s Trans, p. 258).
winzes, as the case might require. If the ore was mainly overhead it was overhand-stoped, and the stopes filled as work progressed, inclined winzes being occasionally driven from the stopes to the original entry drives. If the ore was mainly below, it was underhand-stoped, pillars being left if necessary such pillars in some cases being thirty feet high. They also employed timber and artificial pillars. The mines were practically dry. There is little evidence of breaking by fire. The ore was hand-sorted underground and carried out by the slaves, and in some cases apparently the windlass was used. It was treated by grinding in mills and concentrating upon a sort of buddle. These concentrates mostly galena were smelted in low furnaces and the lead was subsequently cupelled. Further details of metallurgical methods will be found in Notes on p. 391 and p. 465, on metallurgical subjects. The mines were worked by slaves. Even the overseers were at times apparently slaves, for we find (Xenophon, Memorabilia, n., 5) that Nicias paid a whole talent for a good overseer. A talent would be about 837 Troy ounces of silver. As wages of skilled labour were about two and one half pennyweights of silver per diem, and a family income of 100 ounces of silver per annum was affluence, the ratio of purchasing power of Attic coinage to modern would be about 100 to I. Therefore this mine manager was worth in modern value roughly 8,000. The mines were the property of the State. The areas were defined by vertical boundaries, and were let on lease for definite periods for a fixed annual rent. More ample discussion of the law will be found on p. 83.
Agricola here refers to the proposal of Xenophon for the State to collect slaves and hire them to work the mines of Laurion. There is no evidence that this recommendation was ever carried out.
