Of course, if one bought a slave and he subsequently died of the effects of castration, then the price paid was simply lost. For this reason, rather than any humanitarian considerations, it was important to do the utmost to ensure that the victims of this barbarity survived their mutilations. It was to cater for this need that enterprising souls set up special centres in Europe where boys could be brought to be castrated. For two or three centuries, this was a flourishing industry in Italy and France.
