riod of time. In
respect to funds, too, modern nations have a great advantage over those
of former days, in case of any sudden emergency arising to call for
great and unusual expenditures. In consequence of the vast accumulation
of capital in the hands of private individuals, and the confidence which
is felt in the mercantile honor and good faith of most established
governments at the present day, these governments can procure indefinite
supplies of gold and silver at any time, by promising to pay an annual
interest in lieu of the principal borrowed. It is true that, in these
cases, a stipulation is made, by which the government may, at a certain
specified period, pay back the principal, and so extinguish the annuity;
but in respect to a vast portion of the amount so borrowed, it is not
expected that this repayment will ever be made. The creditors, in fact,
do not desire that it should be, as owners of property always prefer a
safe annual income from it to the custody of the principal; and thus
governments in good credit have sometimes induced their creditors to
abate the rate of interest which they were receiving, by threatening
otherwise to pay the debt in full.

These inventions, however, by which a government in one generation may
enjoy the pleasure and reap the glory of waging war, and throw the
burden of the expense on another, were not known in ancient times.
Xerxes did not understand the art of funding a national debt, and there
would, besides, have probably been very little confidence in Persian
stocks, if any had been issued. He had to raise all his funds by actual
taxation, and to have his arms, and his ships and chariots of war,
manufactured express. The food, too, to sustain the immense army which
he was to raise, was all to be produced, and store-houses were to be
built for the accumulation and custody of it. All this, as might
naturally be expected, would require time; and the vastness of the scale
on which these immense preparations were made is evinced by the fact
that _four years_ were the time allotted for completing them. This
period includes, however, a considerable time before the great debate on
the subject described in the last chapter.

The chief scene of activity, during all this time, was the tract of
country in the western part of Asia Minor, and along the shores of the
AEgean Sea. Taxes and contributions were raised from all parts of the
empire, but the actual material of war was furnished