Kitabı oku: «The History of Antiquity, Vol. 6 (of 6)», sayfa 19

From this description we see that the road has been accurately measured, well-kept, guarded, and provided with stations about every 15 miles, in which the travellers could find shelter. As Herodotus calls these inns very beautiful, we must assume that after the Persian fashion they were provided with plantations, and this is confirmed by other evidence. We are told that a station on the royal road in Cadusia, in a wholly bare and treeless region, was surrounded by a park of high pines and cypresses. The Indians also were accustomed to plant their roads and provide them with shady resting-places. The road from Sardis to Susa did not take the shortest route; the object was to escape the Syrian and Phrygian desert, and carry the road through regions which could support the army on the march. Hence it ran from Susa in the valley of the Tigris on the left bank of the river through Susiana and the native land of the Assyrians, for 600 miles in a north-westerly direction, to the mountains of Armenia. The region between the Tigris and the Zagrus to the north of the satrapy of Cissia (Susiana) is called by Herodotus the land of the Matieni, and he extends this name, which is elsewhere used only for the tribes dwelling round the Lake of Urumiah, to the Tigris. Armenia proper was then crossed by the road in a straight line from east to west, from the upper Tigris to the upper Euphrates. Of Cilicia it touched merely the north-east corner, and then cut through Cappadocia in a north-westerly direction to the Halys. It crossed the river in the neighbourhood of Pteria, passed in a south-westerly direction through Phrygia, leaving the desert to the south, and Lydia to Sardis.³⁵² From this great road to the west then branched off between the Gyndes (Diala) and the Physcus (Adhem) the road to Babylon, and at Physcus the road to Ecbatana.

The royal roads through the kingdom secured before all things the rapid operation of the central power and the king on the representatives of his power in the provinces. The stations were used for a postal arrangement, the duty of which it was to carry the commands of the king and the reports and questions of the satraps. Thanks to this post the king was in the possession of a means of communication far superior to that within the reach of any of his subjects. At the stations on all the roads of the kingdom, at intervals of 15 miles or a little more, horses and riders (Astandae, Angari) were placed, whose sole business it was to carry the royal messages and errands. One of these postmen must always be in attendance, in order to carry a letter as soon as it arrived, at the full speed of his horse, by day or by night, in heat or in snow, to the next station. Among the Greeks it was said that the Persian couriers travelled swifter than cranes; Herodotus also assures us that nothing in the world was more rapid than these horsemen.³⁵³ Thus the king's commands travelled on well-built and carefully-guarded roads by this post in the shortest space of time to the most remote provinces. They were brought from Susa to Sardis in five or six days and nights. The commands of the king to the satraps were always given in writing, and accredited by the impression of the king's seal.³⁵⁴ This seal presents to us king Darius with the covered tiara on his head standing on the chariot behind the charioteer; a lion, struck by his arrow, lies beneath the hoofs of the horses which are leaping forward. The king is about to shoot a third arrow at a second huge lion, which has reared himself up in self-defence, and has already received two arrows from the king. At the side a date palm is visible; over the king hovers Auramazda. The inscription, which is in three languages, says: "I am Darius, the great king."³⁵⁵ The rapidity with which the king's commands reached even the satraps of the most distant lands, kept the authority of the king before them. The fortresses and guard-posts on the roads not only served to maintain security on and near them, and to make commerce safe; they were also used to control trade, and travelling, and any correspondence among the subjects. The fortresses were placed at points which could not be avoided, in narrow passes, or on the bridges of great rivers. Those in command dared not allow any one to pass who did not establish his right, as above suspicion. The scribes assigned to the commanders looked over all the letters, which were carried through by messengers.³⁵⁶ As the fortresses in which these guard-posts lay were placed in the most important divisions of the country, the roads could be closed by the posts. If a rebellion arose in this or that quarter, the effect on the neighbouring province was checked by closing the roads by means of the forts, or the road was defended from post to post. And if an enemy invaded from outside he found in them points of resistance, and the Persians points of support.

The guidance and control of the viceroys was not confined to the rapid and lively communications between them and the king. The Greeks tell us that the king travelled every year to this or that province in order to review the troops, and examine the cultivation of the soil. Where the king did not make a visitation in person, he did so by confidential ministers. We are further informed that these visitations were entrusted to the princes of the royal house.³⁵⁷ Where the king found that the land was populous and well cultivated, the forests in good order, and the fields full of the fruits which the land produced, he distinguished the governor by gifts and honours. But where he found the land thinly populated and badly cultivated, whether it was owing to the severity, the neglect, or the extortion of the satrap, the satrap was punished and removed from his place.³⁵⁸ The charge of the whole country lay on the chief overseer, the high official who bore the title of the "king's eye." In the Persians of Aeschylus, the chorus inquire of Xerxes, "Where his faithful eye has remained?" Herodotus notices as an arrangement of the Median kingdom, that the king named a man especially devoted to him, his "Eye." We see that unexpected inspections were made by the "Eye" of the Persian king, and that his subordinates, who were not known to be such, carried on a minute superintendence over the conduct of the satraps, the other officers, and the subject people.³⁵⁹ Still more mysterious was the work of the officers who were known as the king's "Ears." They cannot have been far removed from spies. We saw to what an extent the princes of India carried on the system of secret espionage. Herodotus told us in regard to Deioces that his spies and informers were in every land, and a Persian proverb said, "The king has many eyes and ears." The Greeks declare that the Persian spies did not always content themselves with relating what they had heard, but told much besides in order to show their zeal. Accusation was received with favour by the king and rewarded by distinctions and presents.³⁶⁰ We saw what control was exercised on the great roads, the arteries of communication. Owing to the number of guard-houses in each road, which repeated the inquiries of the first, any one at the court was in a position to compare the accounts of the commanders, and to control them. No one passed even the borders of Babylonia without proving who he was, and of what city, and why he was travelling.³⁶¹ In this way every suspicious circumstance was brought to light, and it was certain that no conspiracy or rebellion could be contrived without some indications being received at the court of the king.

What could not be prevented by the control of the higher and lower officers, and the police supervision of the subjects, was suppressed by the severe exercise of punishment, which was intended to strike fear into magistrate and subject alike by the force of terrible examples. The terrorist use of punishment which the Brahmans on the Ganges knew how to prove to be a divine right, and a duty of the royal office, was in Persia regarded as an indispensable means for supporting the state. And as a fact obedience to the absolute ruler rested, in the magistrates and the ruling tribe, more decidedly on the apprehension of punishment than on any personal interest or common share in the maintenance of the kingdom; and in the subject nations it rested on the fear of the ruler and the interests which the Persian kings gained in those districts. Those entrusted with the power of office must also be the most obedient and submiss. Above all, the feeling must be kept alive in the satraps of the provinces that the enormous powers delegated to them were given on the condition of absolute obedience. The severe penalties which overtook any resistance, or the careless execution of a royal command, were only the reverse of the favours which fell to their lot in other circumstances. However earnestly the religion of Zarathrustra preached the regard for life, the rules of religion were compelled, even in Persia, to give way to reasons of state. We find Darius no less than Cambyses inflicting severe penalties for trifling offences. If the satraps gave any grounds for suspicion, they were either secretly or openly removed out of the way.³⁶² But even in the judges and on those who were not officers every transgression and act of disobedience to the wish of the king was cruelly punished. Darius, who was not considered a harsh ruler, did not content himself with the execution of Intaphernes; he caused nearly all the males of the house to be put to death, though Intaphernes had taken such a prominent part in the assassination of the Magian. The leaders of the rebellions in the provinces were punished by crucifixion or hanging. Khsathrita, who caused the Medes to revolt, and Chitratakhma, the leader of the Sagartians, had their noses and ears cut off before execution, and in this state were exposed to public view.³⁶³ When Darius marched against the Scythians, Oeobazus, a distinguished Persian, entreated that one of his three sons might remain behind. The king considered that this wish was not in harmony with the devotion which every Persian owed to the kingdom; he replied that all his sons should remain, and at once ordered them to be executed. Sandoces, one of the royal judges, had been bribed to give a false judgment; Darius caused him to be crucified; he was already placed on the cross when the king remembered that he had done more good than evil to the royal house, and ordered him to be taken down again. He lived, and remained in the service, but not in the highest court of the kingdom.³⁶⁴ One of the mildest forms of punishment was banishment to the islands of the Persian Gulf. Common punishments were the loss of eyes, nose, ears, tongue; the cutting off of hands, arms, and feet; scourgings were frequent, and they were inflicted even by the satraps.³⁶⁵ The king pronounced the sentence of death by touching the girdle of the accused, or occasionally allowed it to be pronounced in his presence by the seven judges. The sentence was then carried out by crucifixion or decapitation.³⁶⁶ In later times we hear of grinding between stones, incisions in the body while alive, and painful imprisonment in troughs; Xenophon indeed tells us that one of those who took part in the rebellion of the younger Cyrus was tortured for a whole year.³⁶⁷

If we compare the practice of the princes of Persia with the conduct of the Assyrian kings, and the later rulers of the East, we cannot fail to recognize that the officers under the Achaemenids were in a better position and more richly paid, but also better controlled and kept in greater dependence than was the case afterwards. The subjects, in spite of acts of cruel caprice which affected certain persons, were incomparably better off than those of the Assyrians, or of the dynasties which afterwards ruled the East. They were governed with more intelligence and clemency than the subjects of the Porte, or the Khedive, or the Shah of Persia, or the Emirs of Cabul and Herat. It was no small thing that the Persian kings established peace in all Asia from the shores of the Hellespont to the Belurdagh, and maintained order and security from the Nile to the Himalayas. Moreover, the religion and worship of the subject nations, of whatever kind they might be, were not injured, but rather protected and held in honour. Law, justice, and manners remained the same, and the subjects preserved their local self-government. Agriculture in the provinces received attention, trade and commerce went on along the roads and rivers of the vast empire, and was not only unmolested but protected.

CHAPTER XVIII.
THE FINANCE AND ARMY OF DARIUS

The empire of Darius rested on the fact that the Persians regarded themselves as the governing nation in Asia, and on their desire and determination to maintain this position, with the advantages which it brought to them; on the devotion and fidelity with which the Persian tribal princes and nobles stood by the king; on their habits of obedience and subjection; on the ambition of officers and governors, which was excited by obvious distinctions; on the education of a considerable portion of the Persian youth specially for service in the army and the state. Darius was at pains to add to these foundations substantial means for maintaining the empire in the greatest profusion. When he abandoned the system of Cyrus and Cambyses, who had allowed the provinces to fix the amount of their yearly tribute themselves, and set himself to secure a fixed income for the state, it was previously necessary to fix the standard according to which the tribute, which would now be paid as taxes, should be assessed; to arrange the value at which the royal chest would accept the various standards current in the subject nations.

With this object he created a currency. He founded his standard on the forms which the Babylonian system had developed in the course of time. The new gold currency was struck on the standard of the Babylonian gold talent, i. e. on a normal weight of 50½ pounds. Three thousand coins were struck out of this total. The gold in this new currency was purer than that used by Crœsus, or in the older coins in the Ionic cities of Asia Minor; the coins which have come down to us show but little alloy of silver. The gold piece weighed 8.40 grammes; and had in our coinage a value of about 21 shillings; hence the gold talent of Darius was worth 3000 guineas. These new pieces were called by the Hebrews Darkon and Darkemon, among the Greeks Darics. It was of the first importance to bring the gold of the coinage into a simple and easily convertible ratio with silver. In order to do this the silver coins were struck from a larger weight than the gold. Here also Darius used a Babylonian talent; – the silver talent of 67½ pounds, for the normal weight. From this 3000 staters were struck of a weight of 11.14 grammes; or 6000 drachmas of a weight of 5.57 grammes. The silver staters of Darius (silver darics) were called by the Greeks Median sigli (shekels). As gold was valued at 13⅓ times the value of silver, the silver stater, which was one-fourth heavier than the gold coin, was equal to a tenth part of its value, and the drachma to a twentieth. Hence the gold daric was changed for ten silver staters or twenty silver drachmas. The silver talent of Darius was worth more than £300 of our money, the silver stater was worth about two shillings. The silver talent of Darius (which the Greeks call the Babylonian talent) stood to the Euboean talent of the Greeks, who had used the light Babylonian talent as a standard, in a ratio of 3 to 4.³⁶⁸

The new darics were marked with the figure of the king. Three hundred have been lately found in the bed of the canal which the son of Darius caused to be cut through the promontory of Athos; and they exhibit Darius running or kneeling, in a long cloak, with the kaftan over it, the royal tiara on the head, with thick hair and beard; in the right hand, which is depressed, we find a lance; sometimes a sword; and in the left, which is outstretched, the bow. The silver coins of the king also carried his image; in these he sometimes holds an arrow instead of a bow in his left hand. For the Syrian districts Darius had a special large silver coin of about 28 grammes struck, in addition to the royal currency. These present the king with his right hand elevated and his left depressed, on his chariot, which is drawn by four or six horses, which spring over a dead lion. On the reverse is the picture of a city with towers. On other coins of the same kind, the reverse of which presents a galley with rowers, the king is also on his chariot, the horses are moving slowly, and the royal staff-bearer follows the chariot.

The new coinage was not entirely to expel or replace the standards current in the provinces. The coining of gold was indeed reserved for the crown, but the old silver coins of the provinces were not only allowed to be current, they might even be increased, for the right to coin silver was left to the districts, cities, and dynasties. They were allowed to use their own standards, and mark their coins in whatever way they pleased. Communities could put the arms of the city, the dynasts their own portraits, on the coins. The satraps also had the right to coin silver coins, and mark them with special emblems, their names or portraits (among the emblems we find two men before a fire-altar, the form of Auramazda, etc.). The silver money which the satraps struck had no legal privileges over the common coins of the provinces. In the first instance they were coined in exceptional cases when there was a deficiency of the currency, or money was needed for important military undertakings. The satraps, like the countries, the cities, and dynasts, rarely coined after the royal standard; they generally followed the standards common in their provinces in order to meet the local needs.³⁶⁹ In the fourth century B.C. they began to coin more frequently. At the chest of the king only the royal currency was accepted; all other coins were received as bullion, weighed by the royal standard, and then melted down in order to be struck in the royal currency and issued when required.³⁷⁰

It was the opinion of Darius that the crown ought to possess the means for the largest outlay that could be demanded. The treasury of Cyrus was not perhaps exhausted, but no doubt it was seriously diminished by the campaigns of Cambyses, the Magian, the rising of Vahyazdata, and the suppression of the rebellions. The object to be attained was that the yearly income should considerably surpass the yearly expenditure; the excess could then be collected in the treasury, which would thus be in a position to pay and support for years the largest armies that could be required. The care which Darius bestowed on the currency and taxation astonished the Persians, who no doubt remembered the magnanimous conduct of Cyrus, to whom such things were of little moment; as Herodotus tells us, they called him the "retail-dealer" in contrast to Cyrus.³⁷¹ The measure, by which Darius imposed on all his lands the taxes which they had to pay year by year, was the produce of their soil. If the tax which was thus laid on the soil of the provinces on a fixed ratio was not excessive, they were nevertheless subject to services, and the crown could with certainty reckon on the payment of the contributions. The whole amount of arable land in the provinces was measured by parasangs (each of 30 stades); and according to the extent, when thus ascertained, and the quality of the soil, as Herodotus states, the taxes of the provinces were fixed in the royal currency. Within each province the various countries and cantons, which formed a political unit, whether under dynasts or chieftains, or some other form of constitution, were burdened with a fixed share of the contribution of the whole – as we may see from the statement that the overseers of the cantons and countries were responsible for the payment of the taxes. After exhausting wars, new measurements were made with a view to further valuations.³⁷² The lowest contribution of land-tax was made by the satrapy of the Arachoti (the Pactyans of Herodotus), and the Gedrosians (the Sattagydae of Herodotus), to which belonged also the Gandarians to the south of Cabul; it amounted to 170 talents of silver (about £50,000); the next lowest amount was 200 talents, (about £57,000), which was paid by two satrapies, the Saspeires and Alarodians in the valley of the Araxes, and the Caspians, i. e. the Cadusians, the Mardians, the Tapurians, and Hyrcanians. The satrapy of the Sacians paid 250 talents (£70,000). Four satrapies paid 300 talents (£85,000), the satrapy of the Parthians, Areians, Chorasmians and Sogdiani, of the Moschians and Tibarenes, of the Ionians and of the Susiani. The satrapy of Syria with Phœnicia and Cyprus paid 350 talents (£100,000); the satrapies of Bactria and Phrygia with Cappadocia paid 360 talents each (£103,000); Armenia, and the satrapy of the Paricanians and Ethiopians in Asia, paid 400 talents each (£115,000); Media had to pay 450 talents (£130,000); the satrapies of Lydia and Cilicia 500 each (£145,000); Drangiana (the Sarangians and Sagartians) paid 600 talents (£170,000); Egypt with Cyrene, Barca, and the tribes of the Libyans, 700 talents (£200,000); the satrapy of Babylon, i. e. the region to the south of the Armenian mountains between the Euphrates and the Tigris as far as the mouth of the rivers, paid 1000 talents (i. e. £290,000). This was the highest tax imposed on any satrapy; from this assessment, as well as from other evidence, we may conclude that Babylonia was the best cultivated and most fruitful province in the whole kingdom. The entire income from this satrapy is put by Herodotus at an artabè of silver daily, and the Persian artabè was larger by three choenixes than the Attic medimnus. The artabè, therefore, was about equal to a Prussian bushel, i. e. to a measure of 2770 cubic inches.³⁷³

Darius thus received every year from the land-tax of the provinces, 7600 talents of silver in the royal standard, i. e. in round figures £2,500,000. To this has to be added the large amount of gold-dust, which the twentieth, or Indian satrapy, paid yearly to the king. This amount, 360 talents according to Herodotus, was not the land-tax of the province; it was obtained from the gold-sands of the Himalayas. This raised the net income of the treasury to a total of about £3,000,000, and to this again have to be added the taxes imposed on Lemnos and Imbros, on the Thracians and the Greek towns on the Thracian coast, with the Macedonians, after the campaign to the Danube, and the tribute in kind paid by the subject tribes among the Arabians (1000 talents of frankincense every year), and the negroes (ivory and ebony), and the tribute in slaves paid by the Colchians (100 boys and 100 virgins every fifth year).

More important than these contributions of the Arabians, negroes, and Colchians, was the income in money which the crown derived from local sources, within the empire, and the proceeds of royal privileges – more important still the produce in kind which the provinces had to pay every year in addition to the land-tax. In the satrapy of the Parthians and Areians a large sum was paid every year for the opening of the sluices of the Ares (no doubt an affluent of the Margus, V. 9), without which the fields were in that district dried up in the summer. In Egypt the fishery on the canal, which connected the lake of Amenemhat with the Nile, brought the king every year 240 talents.³⁷⁴ In what way the contributions in kind were divided and imposed upon the provinces, it is not easy to see. Herodotus only tells us that the whole kingdom was divided into cantons for the support of the king and army; a full third of this burden fell upon the satrapy of Babylon.³⁷⁵ We know that Cappadocia, i. e. Phrygia and Cappadocia, the third satrapy of Herodotus, provided each year, in addition to the land-tax of £103,000, 1500 horses, 2000 mules, and 50,000 sheep; Media in addition to her land-tax provided double this amount of animals.³⁷⁶ Armenia provided 10,000 foals each year in addition to the tax of £115,000.³⁷⁷ Cilicia furnished 360 grey horses each year. Besides these contributions in animals, there were payments in corn for the garrisons in the provinces. The Persians who formed the garrison of the White Fortress in Memphis received yearly from Egypt 120,000 bushels of wheat, an amount which would abundantly supply the wants of 8000 men. As wheat was cheap in Egypt this contribution would represent a value of about £8500.³⁷⁸ Each province sent its best products to the court; and nothing but the best was brought to court or received there; there all that was splendid in the empire was to be collected.³⁷⁹ Babylon sent every year 500 eunuch-boys for service at the court, and Colchis sent male and female slaves of Caucasian race. Chalybon (Helbon) in Syria furnished wine for the court; wheat came from the cities of the Aeolians and the Anatolian coast, salt from the Libyans and the oasis of Siwah.³⁸⁰

"From ancient times," Theopompus of Chios informs us, "the taxes and the entertainment of the king were imposed on the cities according to their size."³⁸¹ Ctesias and Deinon maintain that the table of the king of Persia, i. e. the entertainment of the entire court, cost 400 talents daily. This is grossly exaggerated. From Herodotus we see that the support of Xerxes and his train, the officers, and all the necessary accompaniments, the tents and plate, and moreover the feeding of the entire army for one day cost the city of Abdera 300 talents, and the island of Thasos 400 talents (£85,000). Theopompus also tells us that when the king visited a city it cost them 20, and sometimes 30, talents to entertain him, and others spent even larger sums.³⁸² These expenses were increased by the fact that the servants took away with them the plate used at table.³⁸³ The support of the king, and apparently of the satraps, officers, and generals when travelling, the maintenance of troops on the march, were extraordinary burdens, but the contributions for the table of the king were ordinary and regular. The daily maintenance of the court was expensive, because it included the support of a body-guard. "Every day," Heraclides of Cyme relates, "a thousand animals were slaughtered; among them horses, camels, oxen, asses, and deer, but chiefly sheep. Many birds were eaten, and Arabian ostriches among them. The greater part of this and of the other food was brought to court for the body-guard, and the overseers gave out meat and bread in equal portions; for as the mercenaries in Hellas receive money, so do these soldiers receive their maintenance from the king."³⁸⁴ Fifteen thousand men are said to have been fed at the court every day; and as the body-guard may be put at 10,000 men, this statement does not seem exaggerated.

Beside the contributions in kind for the equipment of the army, the support of garrisons and the court, there were burdens of another kind. The kings of Persia kept great studs for the court and army. We have already mentioned the stud in Nisaea in Media; 150,000 or 160,000 horses are said to have pastured there. The royal studs in Babylonia contained in breeding horses, 800 horses and 16,000 mares – "besides the horses for war," as Herodotus expressly adds. The Indian dogs which were kept by Darius or his successors were so numerous, that four great villages in Babylonia had to contribute exclusively to their maintenance.³⁸⁵ As Herodotus observes that these villages were free from other burdens, we may assume that all the places, on which contributions in kind were imposed for special objects, were exempted from the large contributions for the court and army in horses, beasts of burden, cattle for slaughter, corn, etc. Elsewhere we find places burdened with special services to members of the royal house, or favourites. Certain districts and cities had to pay for the girdle of the queen, others for her veil; one place paid for the head-band, another for the necklace, a third for the hair ornaments of the queen.³⁸⁶ Xenophon tells us that the favourites of the king of Persia received horses and servants in the various provinces, and transmitted them to their descendants.³⁸⁷ When Demaratus, king of Sparta, after losing his throne, sought protection with Darius in Persia, the city of Halisarna and the district of Teuthrania were allotted to him. Gongylus of Eretria received from Darius Gambrium, Myrina, and Gryneum. At a later time Magnesia on the Maeander was assigned to Themistocles – a city, which, recovering from the destruction by Mazares (p. 54), paid, according to Thucydides, a yearly contribution of 50 talents (more than £10,000) for bread, Lampsacus, which was famous for its cultivation of the vine, for wine, and Myus for relishes. In this way, in accordance with the system of Cyrus and Darius, Demaratus was made prince of Halisarna, Gongylus became prince of Gambrium, Themistocles prince of Magnesia; the latter also received contributions in produce from other cities. Demaratus and Gongylus left their thrones to their descendants.³⁸⁸ As the places which had to provide contributions in kind for special purposes or individuals were freed from the contributions of the provinces to the army and court – the land-tax of the places presented to favoured persons were no doubt taken out of the land-tax of the province.

We are not in a position to fix even approximately the amount of the net income of the treasury of Darius which came in every year over and above the land-tax of the provinces and the tolls. Nor can we say how high the yearly contributions in kind paid by the provinces for the court and army ran. If we set aside the extraordinary burdens of supporting the king on a journey, or a satrap, or officer, and the maintenance of troops on a march, and follow Theopompus in assuming that the average daily expense of the whole court amounted to 30 Babylonian talents, a total of 11,000 talents of the royal standard, i. e. more than £3,000,000, would be required for this purpose, a sum in excess of the land-tax of the provinces. If we further assume that the maintenance of the army imposed on the provinces a burden equal to the maintenance of the court, the provinces would have to pay for the state, in ordinary burdens, without regard to their own requirements, three times the amount of the land-tax. Egypt, which, with Cyrene and Barca, had to pay 700 talents in tax, would thus pay 2100 talents of royal money every year, i. e. more than £600,000. At a later time we find that Ptolemy II. received each year from Egypt 14,800 Attic talents, i. e. about £3,000,000, and 1,500,000 artabès of corn, and Ptolemy Auletes received 6000, and, according to Cicero's statement, 12,500 Attic talents.³⁸⁹ The income of the empire of the Sassanids under Chosru Parviz is put at nearly £14,000,000.³⁹⁰