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I.
Case Background |
The city-state of Athens controlled the Lavrion mines that were rich sources of silver especially, also quantities of copper, lead and other minerals and metals of value.
Silver from the Lavrion mines was much more than a possession. It was fashioned into Tetrhadrachmon coins that were currency of the time. They were literally mining money. While the tin was imported, the local copper provided a source to make bronze. The ability to "mine" money made Athens a great power and aided Greece in the wars with Persia. Athen's loss of the silver mines in the Peloponnesian Wars signaled the ultimate decline of Athens.
Bronze was the modern technology of the time. Athens got rich via the mines and invested in a maritime fleet that made them into a great power. A new, rich vein was discovered that allowed the Athenians to expand their fleet of warships that defeated the Persians at sea in the war with Xerxes. During the Peloponnesian Wars (431-404 BCE), Sparta defeated Athens at the battle of Dekelia in 413 BCE and controlled access to the mines. The mines never again reached the same levels of production and sat dormant until the 1800s. Athens too, was never the same without this source of income. The ore veins were finally exhausted in 1982 and the mines abandoned.
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