ABSTRACT
The Ottoman drive into the Pannonian plain did not automatically entail the ruin of the whole region, nor did the discovery of the New World and the Atlantic revolution completely marginalize that part of the Old Continent. The Turkish occupation of the Hungarian plain altered the routes of exchange and the lands spared from warfare developed their various activities, in particular mining. The quantity of precious metals mined was certainly modest when compared with the American silver which presently flooded Europe and in the second half of the century, with the opening of the Potosi mines in Peru, the gap would become yet greater. The output of the mines in Bohemia and Upper Hungary was, however, sufficient to strengthen the economy of the region, a modest echo of the 'world economy' dear to Fernand Braudel. 1
