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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: [25] See "Mem." II. viii. 1, for an illustrative case.
Let it be granted, however, that at first a nucleus of twelve hundred
slaves is formed. It is hardly too sanguine a supposition that out of
the profits alone,[26] within five or six years this number may be
increased to at least six thousand. Again, out of that number of six
thousand--supposing each slave to being in an obol a day clear of all
expenses--we get a revenue of sixty talents a year. And supposing
twenty talents out of this sum laid out on the purchase of more
slaves, there will be forty talents left for the state to apply to any
other purpose it may find advisable. By the time the round number[27]
of ten thousand is reached the yearly income will amount to a hundred
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