Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/165

Rh "qualified by nature to afford very large revenues." And he seems to think it an immense point to add £10,000 or £20,000 to the revenues of the state.

One of the ways by which he proposes to do this is to increase the number of foreigners settling at Athens, and paying a yearly tax of twelve drachmæ (nine shillings) a-head. In Xenophon's time the citizens of Athens, exclusive of slaves, appear to have amounted to only about 20,000. Therefore in order to obtain £10,000 of additional revenue by means of the alien-tax, it would have been necessary to have more foreigners than citizens residing at Athens. To secure this desirable object, Xenophon proposes to give encouragement to foreign settlers by exempting them from military service, and granting them sites for houses—all for the sake of nine shillings per head. The foreigners especially referred to by Xenophon were "Lydians, Phrygians, and Syrians;" and Boeckh, in his 'Public Economy of Athens,' points out that the proposal was similar to what it would be in modern times to encourage the settlement of "Jew traders" in a country, till they outnumbered the original inhabitants, at the same time exempting them from military service, and allowing them to hold land. In any country which was exposed to war, and which had adopted such a policy, it is clear that the citizens would gradually be swept away in battle, while the aliens without patriotic feelings or noble motives would be left in possession of the state.

Xenophon's next idea is, that the commerce of Athens should be stimulated by encouragements, and