presume, to every one that these mines have for a very long time been
in active operation; at any rate no one will venture to fix the date
at which they first began to be worked.[2] Now in spite of the fact
that the silver ore has been dug and carried out for so long a time, I
would ask you to note that the mounds of rubbish so shovelled out are
but a fractional portion of the series of hillocks containing veins of
silver, and as yet unquarried. Nor is the silver-bearing region
gradually becoming circumscribed. On the contrary it is evidently
extending in wider area from year to year. That is to say, during the
period in which thousands of workers[3] have been employed within the
mines no hand was ever stopped for want of work to do. Rather, at any
given moment, the work to be done was more than enough for the hands
employed. And so it is to-day with the owners of slaves working in the
mines; no one dreams of reducing the number of his hands. On the
contrary, the object is perpetually to acquire as many additional
hands as the owner possibly can. The fact is that with few hands to
dig and search, the find of treasure will be small, but with an
increase in labour the discovery of the ore itself is more than
proportionally increased. So much so, that of all operations with
which I am acquainted, this is the only one in which no sort of
jealousy is felt at a further development of the industry.[4] I may go
a step farther; every proprietor of a farm will be able to tell you
exactly how many yoke of oxen are sufficient for the estate, and how
many farm hands. To send into the field more than the exact number
requisite every farmer would consider a dead loss.[5] But in silver
mining [operations] the universal complaint is the want of hands.
Indeed there is no analogy between this and other industries. With an
increase in the number of bronze-workers articles of bronze may become
so cheap that the bronze-worker has to retire from the field. And so
again with ironfounders. Or again, in a plethoric condition of the