Читать книгу The History of Mining - Michael Coulson - Страница 24

The Romans were an advanced and so very well organised society, a critical attribute for the efficient operation of an empire that lasted many centuries. They firmly believed in structure and mining was an area where they established, both at home and in the conquered territories, a legal structure to enable raw materials to be extracted and for the extraction process to yield tax and royalty revenues for the treasuries of the Empire. The richness of the Spanish gold and silver mines unfortunately led to bureaucratic corruption, although the flow of revenues to Rome meant that a blind eye was turned to official pocket lining.

The Romans developed two main administrative structures for mining. One consisted of a leasing system where Roman revenue officials auctioned mining leases to the highest bidder. Having leased the mines to operators, this bidder was then expected to provide Rome with an agreed flow of revenue from the mines. This revenue was obtained from the mine operators, very often the main lease owner making large amounts from the difference between what Rome expected in payments from him and what he charged the lease operator in royalties.

The other system was similar in terms of lease payments to Rome but the control of the mines was vested in an administrator appointed by Rome who either leased the properties to mine operators or himself took on the task of running the mines. There was plenty of room within this system for personal gain and the chicanery started at the top, with the Caesars in the late 1st century AD particularly rapacious as they took control of many of the Empire’s gold and silver mines. In due course, as the Empire began to collapse the mines deteriorated, corrupt practices abounded and eventually the mines became uneconomic.

With the collapse of the Roman Empire, mining, along with everything else, slipped into the Dark Ages and mining techniques reverted to crude, manual methods that were dangerous and inefficient. It was many centuries before the industry regained the heights of operational efficiency reached under the Romans.