SECT. V.

Product of gold and filver-mines, one of the prin cipal fources of the riches of the antients.

IT is eafy to conceive that mines of gold and

filver must have produced great profits to the private perfons and princes who poffeffed them, if they took the least trouble to work them. Diod.1.16. Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, had gold-mines near Pydna, a city of Macedonia, from which he drew yearly a thousand

Juftin. 1.8. talents, that is to fay, three millions.

c. 3: Strab. 1.

P. 331.

redit.

He had

alfo other mines of gold and filver in Theffaly 7. and Thrace; and it appears, that these mines fubfifted as long as the kingdom of Macedonia; for the Romans, when they had conquered Perfeus, prohibited the use and exercife of them to the Macedonians.

The Athenians had filver mines not only at Laurium in Attica, but particularly in Thrace, Xenoph. from which they were great gainers. Xenode ration. phon mentions many citizens enriched by them. Hipponius had fix hundred flaves: Nicias, who was killed in Sicily, had a thousand. The farmers of their mines paid daily to the first fifty livres, clear of all charges, allowing an obolus a day for each flave; and as much in proportion to the fecond; which amounted to a confiderable revenue.

Xenophon, in the treatife, wherein he propofes feveral methods for augmenting the revenues of Athens, gives the Athenians excellent advice upon, this head, and exhorts them, above all, to make commerce honourable; to encourage and protect thofe, who applied themfelves to it, whether citizens or ftrangers; to advance money for their ufe, taking fecurity for the payment; to fupply them with fhips for the tranfportation of merchandife; and to be affured, that with regard to trade, the opulence and strength of the ftate confifted in the wealth of individuals, and of the people. He infifts very much in relation to mines, and is earnest, that the republick fhould cultivate them in its own name, and for its own advantage, without being afraid of injuring particulars in that conduct; because they fufficed for the enriching both the one and the other, and that mines were not wanting to workmen, but workmen to the mines.

But the produce of the mines of Attica and Thrace was nothing, in comparison with what the Spanish mines produced. "The Tyrians had the first profits of them; the inhabitants of the country not knowing their value. The Carthaginians fucceeded them; and as foon as they had fet foot in Spain, perceived the mines would be an inexhauftible fource of riches for them. Pliny informs us, that one of them Plin. 1.33alone fupplied Hannibal daily with three hun- c. 6. dred pounds of filver, which amounts to twelve thousand fix hundred livres; as the fame Pliny obferves elsewhere.

Polybius, cited by Strabo, fays, that in his times there were forty thoufand men employed in the mines in the neighbourhood of Carthagena, and that they paid daily twenty-five thouVOL. X. A a

fand

Ibid. c. 9.

C. IO.

fand drachmas to the Roman people, that is, twelve thousand five hundred livres.

History mentions private perfons, who had Varr. apud immenfe and incredible revenues. Varro fpeaks Plin. 1.33 of one Ptolomy, a private perfon, who, in the time of Pompey, commanded in Syria, and maintained eight thousand horfe at his own expences; and had generally a thousand guests at his table, who had each a gold cup, which was Plin. ibid. changed at every courfe. This is nothing to Herod. 1. Pythius of Bithynia, who made king Darius a 7. c. 27. prefent of the Plantane and Vine, fo much ex

tolled in hiftory, both of maffy gold, and feasted the whole army of Xerxes one day in a fplendid manner, though it confifted of feventeen hundred thousand men; offering that prince five months pay for that prodigious hoft, and the neceffary provifions for the whole time. From what fource could fuch enormous treafures arife, if not principally from the mines of gold and filver poffeffed by these particulars?

We are furprized to read in Plutarch, the account of the fums carried to Rome, for the triumphs of Paulus Emilius, Lucullus, and many other victorious generals.

But all this is inconfiderable, to the endless millions amaffed by David and Solomon, and employed in the building and ornaments of the temple of Jerufalem. Thofe immenfe riches, of which the recital aftonifhes us, was partly the fruits of the commerce established by David in Arabia, Perfia, and Indoftan, by the means Elath and of two ports he had caufed to be built in IduAfionga- mæa, at the extremity of the Red fea; which ber. trade Solomon must have confiderably augmen2 Chron. ted, as in one voyage only, his fleet brought viii. 18. home four hundred and fifty talents of gold, which amount to above one hundred and thirty

five millions of livres. Judæa was but a small 2 Chron. country, and nevertheless the annual revenue ofix. 13. it, in the time of Solomon, without reckoning many other fums, amounted to fix hundred and fixty-fix talents of gold, which make near two hundred millions of livres. Many mines muft have been dug in those days, for supplying fo incredible à quantity of gold, and thofe of Mexico and Peru were not then discovered.

SECT. VI.

Of coins and medals.

THO commerce begun, by the exchange of commodities, as appears in Homer; experience foon made the inconvenience of that traffick evident, from the nature of the several merchandises, that could neither be divided, nor cut without confiderable prejudice to their value; which obliged the dealers in them, by little and little, to have recourse to métals, which diminished neither in goodness nor fabrick by divifion. Hence, from the time of Abraham, and without doubt before him, gold and filver were introduced in commerce, and perhaps copper alfo for the leffer wares. As frauds were committed in regard to the weight and quality of the metal, the civil government and publick authority interpofed, for establishing the fecurity of commerce, and ftamped metals with impreffions to distinguish and authorize them. From thence came the various dyes for money, the names of the coiners, the effigies of princes, the years of confulfhips, and the like marks.

VOL. X.

О

A a 2

The

The Greeks put enigmatical hieroglyphicks upon their coins, which were peculiar to each province. The people of Delphos reprefented a dolphin upon theirs, this was a kind of fpeaking blazonry: the Athenians the bird of their Minerva, the owl, the fymbol of vigilance, even during the night: the Boeotians a Bacchus, with a bunch of grapes and a large cup, to imply the plenty and delicioufnefs of their country the Macedonians a fhield, in allusion to the force and valor of their foldiery: the Rhodians, the head of Apollo, or the fun, to whom they had dedicated their famous Coloffus. In fine, every magiftrate took pleasure to exprefs in his money the glory of his province, or the advantages of his city.

The making bad money has been practifed in all ages and nations. In the first payment made by the Carthaginians of the fum, to which the Romans had condemned them at the end of the fecond punick war, the money brought by their ambaffadors was not of good alloy, and it was difcovered, upon melting it, that the fourth part was bad. They were obliged to make good the deficiency by borrowPlin. 1.33. ing money at Rome. Antony the Triumvir, at the time of his greatest neceffity, caused iron to be mixed with the money coined by his order.

This bad coin was either made by a mixture of copper, or wanted more or less of its juft weight. A pound of gold and filver ought to be, as Pliny obferves, fourscore and fixteen, or