Yearn for metals built our civilization

Mere romantic reading about one king eliminating another king and his army was how we learned. What scholars and scientists can now tell us is much more exciting for a metals man. We now know so many things that were buried in data awaiting comprehension or were literally buried in the ground.

The driving force in metals discovery was the desire to be rich or at least more prosperous and, in more ambitious persons, the fanatic desire to dominate and control others.

What is not fully grasped is the paradox that the main result of that maelstrom of selfishness was a slow climb to higher and higher civilization levels. We are not at the peak yet, but it is a source of great pride to recount the vital part our metals people have played in this achievement.

Discoveries of metals in ancient days made large numbers of people rich. Normally, this wealth merely stimulated the luxury trades such as fine clothing, large houses, more household slaves and jewelry. Fortunately for us, however, the new wealth was sometimes used for nobler purposes.

Take the case of the new, exceptionally rich, deep vein of silver discovered in 482 B.C. at Laurium on the southeast tip of mainland Greece, 25 miles southeast of Athens. It provoked a vigorous debate in Athens on the use of the profits.

One side pressed for a fair distribution of largess among those who had the status of citizen. Themistocles spoke for the other side. He had already begun to fortify a new, safer port at Piraeus against the deadly Spartan army and navy and nearby rich commercial Aegina, and now argued that the silver windfall should be used to build a fleet of 200 warships against these dangers.

Fortunately for our modern civilization, the silver profits built the 200 battle vessels. As it turned out, the fleet was actually used in defeating the 1,000 invading warships of giant Persia at Salamis in 480 B.C. The feared Spartans and Aeginans supported Athens, and the cream of the Spartan army and Thespians all died in the famous battle of Thermopylae. The king Xerxes took his vast forces home and Persia-Iran never invaded again.

What it meant was the silver wealth had ensured that the wonderful Greek efforts toward democracy and civilization could continue. If Persia had won, Greece would have become just another possession of that vast despotic empire and Rome as we know it would never have been able to draw on Greek knowledge in building its own empire.

Rome, however, viewed silver and metal wealth differently. Their gradual conquest of the copper-, iron- and silver-rich Etruscans (Tuscany) north of Rome (the Etruscans enjoyed advanced metallurgy), by the third century B.C., was motivated by plain envy and greed.

Etruscan metal resources were enormous. The eastern Mediterranean eagerly bought Etruscan metals, mined since the 10th century B.C., and rich Etruscans were steady importers of lavish amounts of Mid-East gold — shocking to the Greeks. Etruscan women were weighted down with stupendous amounts of jewelry.

Rome took over but incorporated much of that metal-built civilization, so we still benefit.

Rome did the same takeover of the even larger mineral wealth of Spain. It gave the Romans the richest sources of precious metals in the known world. This economic power enabled Rome to expand its range.

This metal-based Roman-Greek civilization taught the world the rule of law, the underpinning of our present freedoms. It gave to modern English-speakers some 60% of the words we have and virtually all of the vocabulary of French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Rumanian. Not a bad consequence of that metal-mining activity. T.P. (Tom) Mohide, a former president of the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange, served as a director of mining resources with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources prior to his retirement in 1986.

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