ABSTRACT
The minerals represented an important resource for the expansion of industry: ‘Mineral wealth is the backbone of any industrial society’. Greece’s mineral resources thus seemed to be one option to accelerate the country’s industrialisation and enable it to catch up with central Europe. In the 1850s, the so-called Pattinson process made it possible to process silver from molten lead-silver alloy, a technique that became widespread by 1870. The discovery and development of new mines was – and indeed continues to be – an extremely capital-intensive investment that requires long-term commitment. The Bavarian regency and King Otto also demonstrated interest in the mineral deposits, with Otto seeking expert advice by commissioning the mining engineer Karl Fiedler in 1835 with the investigation of the mines. Diverse reports investigated the legal situation in Greece and compared mining rights in France, England, the Ottoman Empire, Bavaria, Prussia, antique Greece and Rome, coming to diverse conclusions.
