Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950

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              <s>
                <pb pagenum="21"/>
              finally, the mine foreman may conceal the vein by plastering over with
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              clay that part where the metal abounds, or by covering it with earth,
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              stones, stakes, or poles, in the hope that after several years the pro­
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              prietors, thinking the mine exhausted, will abandon it, and the foreman
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              can then excavate that remainder of the ore and keep it for himself.
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              </s>
              <s>They even state that the scum of the miners exist wholly by fraud,
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              deceit, and lying. </s>
              <s>For to speak of nothing else, but only of those
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              deceits which are practised in buying and selling, it is said they either
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              advertise the veins with false and imaginary praises, so that they can
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              sell the shares in the mines at one-half more than they are worth, or
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              on the contrary, they sometimes detract from the estimate of them so
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              that they can buy shares for a small price. </s>
              <s>By exposing such frauds our
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              critics suppose all good opinion of miners is lost. </s>
              <s>Now, all wealth,
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              whether it has been gained by good or evil means, is liable by some adverse
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              chance to vanish away. </s>
              <s>It decays and is dissipated by the fault and care­
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              lessness of the owner, since he loses it through laziness and neglect, or
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              wastes and squanders it in luxuries, or he consumes and exhausts it in gifts,
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              or he dissipates and throws it away in gambling:</s>
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              <s>“Just as though money sprouted up again, renewed from an exhausted
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              coffer, and was always to be obtained from a full heap.”</s>
            </p>
            <p type="main">
              <s>It is therefore not to be wondered at if miners do not keep in mind the
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              counsel given by King Agathocles: “Unexpected fortune should be held
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              in reverence,” for by not doing so they fall into penury; and particularly
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              when the miners are not content with moderate riches, they not rarely spend
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              on new mines what they have accumulated from others. </s>
              <s>But no just ruler
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              or magistrate deprives owners of their possessions; that, however, may be
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              done by a tyrant, who may cruelly rob his subjects not only of their goods
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              honestly obtained, but even of life itself. </s>
              <s>And yet whenever I have inquired
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              into the complaints which are in common vogue, I always find that the
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              owners who are abused have the best of reasons for driving the men from
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              the mines; while those who abuse the owners have no reason to complain
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              about them. </s>
              <s>Take the case of those who, not having paid their contributions,
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              have lost the right of possession, or those who have been expelled by the magis­
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              trate out of another man's mine: for some wicked men, mining the small
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              veins branching from the veins rich in metal, are wont to invade the property
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              of another person. </s>
              <s>So the magistrate expels these men accused of wrong,
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              and drives them from the mine. </s>
              <s>They then very frequently spread
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              unpleasant rumours concerning this amongst the populace. </s>
              <s>Or, to take
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              another case: when, as often happens, a dispute arises between neighbours,
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              arbitrators appointed by the magistrate settle it, or the regular judges
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              investigate and give judgment. </s>
              <s>Consequently, when the judgment is given,
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              inasmuch as each party has consented to submit to it, neither side should
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              complain of injustice; and when the controversy is adjudged, inasmuch as
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              the decision is in accordance with the laws concerning mining, one of the
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              parties cannot be injured by the law. </s>
              <s>I do not vigorously contest the point,
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              that at times a mine superintendent may exact a larger contribution </s>
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          </chap>
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