ABSTRACT

From ca. 1470 to 1550, a mining boom occurred in central Europe. Driven by the demand for metals needed for both specie and guns, deeper mines were excavated, resulting in an increase in the production of copper, tin, lead, iron, silver, gold, and substances such as saltpeter (an essential ingredient in gunpowder), alum (needed to stabilize dyes used in the textile industries), and, especially from the sixteenth century, coal. In this period, production of metals increased several times over, sometimes fivefold. Deeper, more costly mines required large outlays of capital. Gradually, small cooperative groups of miners gave way to wage earners paid by absentee shareholders who provided capital and reaped profits along with the princes and others who held regalian rights over the land. The boom ended during the second half of the sixteenth century as a result of depletion of the richest veins, oversupply exacerbated by a flood of precious metals from the New World, and the disruptions of war. Yet, mining remained one of the earliest examples of industrial capitalism. It effected the reorganization of labor and capital, produced new technologies and techniques, and, on a more abstract level, influenced the development of knowledge.