The Ladder of Business
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I am a Roman businessman. I would like to make the biggest profit ever made and live a rich life as an upper class. I would love to have many slaves working for me.
When I came to Rome I had a capital of only 5 denarii. I am now planning my time here in Rome and this is how made my profits in this town.
Since I had so much land and had no use of it, I decided it was the time to sell it. I sold 50 acres of my land to a family wanting to build a new house.
I decided to move into the industry. I bought a small lead mine for 1 deanrius. It wasnt much of a mine, but I decided to make the most of it. I had slaves working in the mine for me, and although they were working, I was making no profit at all. As it was a waste of time to just wait, I forced my slaves to work harder. After this, I had an income of 3 denarii. Since I had made a profit of 4 denarii, and I didnt want to stay in the mining business forever, I bought 3 ships for 3 denarii and decided to have a go in the trading industry.
I went through a hard time in this industry. After I made a profit, there would always be a reason for me to have to spend that money. I thought, after spending so may months in this market and making no profit, that I wasnt s skilled at this, so I took a risk and sold all of my ships and cargoes to another trader for 2 denarii. I dont regret it.
A few days later, the Emperor found me and asked if he could borrow some money. I let him borrow 3 denarii. He took the money, and after 5 months, he returned the money with 1 denarius interest. I had made a profit of 1 denarius for just lending money! Maybe I should continue lending money and receiving interest I now had a capital of 9 denarii. I had made a profit of 4 denarii since I had come to this town.
Well, Im giving up lending money, so I bought the right to supply the legions. Over the time I had this right, it gave me an income of 1 denarius. I got sick of this, and decided to buy a slave-market. I think I may have bought the one most people come to, as in only a short time I sold so many slaves that I had an income of 2 denarii, and slave prices had gone down since I had bought a few for my lead mine.
Since I had experience in the mine business, I decided to buy another 2. Although I thought that I didnt want to continue on with mining, I bought 2 silver mines in Europe. I took some of