Agricola, Georgius, De re metallica, 1912/1950
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              <s>Some owners prefer to buy shares
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              9
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              in mines abounding in metals,
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              rather than to be troubled themselves to search for the veins; these men
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              employ an easier and less uncertain method of increasing their property.
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              <s>Although their hopes in the shares of one or another mine may be frustrated,
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              the buyers of shares should not abandon the rest of the mines, for all the
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              money expended will be recovered with interest from some other mine.
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              <s>They should not buy only high priced shares in those mines producing metals,
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              nor should they buy too many in neighbouring mines where metal has not
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              yet been found, lest, should fortune not respond, they may be exhausted by
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              their losses and have nothing with which they may meet their expenses
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              or buy other shares which may replace their losses. </s>
              <s>This calamity over­
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              takes those who wish to grow suddenly rich from mines, and instead, they
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              become very much poorer than before. </s>
              <s>So then, in the buying of shares,
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              as in other matters, there should be a certain limit of expenditure which
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              miners should set themselves, lest blinded by the desire for excessive wealth,
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              they throw all their money away. </s>
              <s>Moreover, a prudent owner, before he
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              buys shares, ought to go to the mine and carefully examine the nature of the
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              vein, for it is very important that he should be on his guard lest fraudulent
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              sellers of shares should deceive him. </s>
              <s>Investors in shares may perhaps
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              become less wealthy, but they are more certain of some gain than those who
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              mine for metals at their own expense, as they are more cautious in trusting
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              to fortune. </s>
              <s>Neither ought miners to be altogether distrustful of fortune, as
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              we see some are, who as soon as the shares of any mine begin to go up in
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