ABSTRACT
World to satisfy the sustained European demand for precious metals. At first the industry formed little more than an overseas extension of the great central European mining boom of the years 1451-1540. Certainly it was then that an association of high capital investment with a remarkable range of technical innovation succeeded in pushing German silver production to unparalleled heights. Problems of drainage were solved by cutting adits several miles long beneath the lode, or by the installation of great water wheels and whims moved by teams of up to a hundred horses. As early as 1451 the invention of lead smelting facilitated the separation of silver from the copper compounds with which it was usually found. The construction of stamp mills, impelled by either water power or horses, completed the circle of improvements.1 The publication of G, Agricola's De re metallica (1556), a lavishly illustrated work, hastened the diffusion of practical knowledge.2
