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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] Reading, with Zurborg, {epi one te}.
IV
I come to a new topic. I am persuaded that the establishment of the
silver mines on a proper footing[1] would be followed by a large
increase in wealth apart from the other sources of revenue. And I
would like, for the benefit of those who may be ignorant, to point out
what the capacity of these mines really is. You will then be in a
position to decide how to turn them to better account. It is clear, I
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
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