Research Topics MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE

DECEMBER 2016

Mountain Clamor! Resource Flows and Metal Culture in Early Modern Mining By Tina Asmussen

Mining was one of the most important driving forces behind economic and technological dy- namics in early modern Europe. Silver, copper, and lead mining experienced a veritable boom in the Ore Mountains, the Harz Mountains, and the Tyrolean Alps from the second half of the ff- teenth century. Te rapid spread of news of the discovery of rich metal deposits led to a sudden transformation of hitherto uncultivated areas into populated and prospering mining regions (Figure 2).

Te term “Berggeschrey,” or “mountain clam- raised within the histories of science and art. I or,” was coined by contemporaries to describe investigate contemporary processes and prac- this phenomenon—frstly, it points to a pro- tices of valuation of metals that are not just cess of economic dynamism, with faster cy- restricted to mere economic dimensions but cles of booms and busts and the circulation of acknowledge the complex semantics of the ma- people, knowledge, materials, and money at a terial and their emotional-afective implica- quickened pace. Secondly, the clamor’s inten- tions. By looking more closely at the dynamic sity and impulsiveness marks the afective di- sociocultural energies behind the already well- mension of this early modern silver rush, studied economic and technological develop- driven by material desires, hope, and fear. My ments of the early modern mining industry, research project “Subterranean Economies— and by addressing the materiality and its Resource Flows and Metal Culture in Early transformation through mutual processes of Modern Mining” links up the history of po- appropriation and attribution, my research litical economy—broadly understood as the challenges teleological narratives of the con- set of practices of making and exchanging solidation of administrative structures, fnan- value in a given culture—with questions cial mechanisms, and technological innova- about knowledge, agency, and meaning being tion. Building upon people’s longing for zen), which served as payment for the inves- tors (Gewerken) of a certain mine, and tokens. On a regular basis, new edicts were issued, new coins introduced, old coins valued or re- valued, and “evil” coins with a very low pre- cious metal content were prohibited. In these discourses the values of raw material, of utili- ty, and of exchange overlapped with and were intimately linked to desires, wishful thinking, and moral discourses about honest and deceit- ful ways of making proft. Te new possibilities for making fortunes— and losing them—triggered contemporary re- Fig. 1: Te mines as an emblem of power. fection on material wealth and fnancial prof- Schaustück (showpiece) of Duke Georg it, not only on the level of the state’s (o) Braunschweig-Calenberg value of 4 talers. economy but also for individuals who dared to Henning Schlüter: Zellerfeld, 1638, 115,31g, invest. Contemporaries described the moun- 89mm. tains as “matrices” of wealth and repositories of all treasures. With the aid of increasingly precious and semi-precious metals, my lead- expensive machines, costly ventilation and ing questions center material and emotional drainage technologies tunnels were drilled valorizations of metals in connection with the into great depths, and with new metallurgical manufacture and circulation of coin as a token methods such as liquation, ores with poorer of exchange and value. metal content could be exploited and pro- Te quickening of economic fows in and be- cessed. Tese developments turned mining yond mining regions led to widespread dis- industry into a high-risk and capital-intensive cussions, both in writing and practice, con- business, where people could easily lose mon- cerning the intrinsic value and exchange rates ey and ruin themselves. Tese technological of coins. Since the greatest part of the mining and organizational innovations therefore not region’s silver production was coined in local only changed the economic landscape, but af- mints, mining was closely connected to mon- fected people’s perceptions of metallic ores etary policy and practices. Te increased silver and the value attached to them. As the miners output led to the leading gold currency (Rhen- and investors believed, one could acquire the ish guilder) being gradually replaced by a sil- desired metals and turn the mining venture ver equivalent—the Guldiner, Guldengroschen, into proft by trusting in God and one’s good or Taler. Te mints not only produced Taler fortune, by having good hope, true skill, and coins, but also commemorative medals—such adequate knowledge. as that of Duke Georg of Braunschweig-Calen- Te association of mining with knowledge, berg (Figure 1)—mining coins (Ausbeutemün- wealth, risk, and uncertainty thus clearly con- Fig. 2: Mining industry represented as a prospering and promising venture. Andreas Ryf, Münz- und Mineralienbuch, 1594. Autograph in possession of the Basel University Library (A lambda II 46a). nects the desire for material gain with a fear of er, he arranged both sides along the axis of fnancial wreck and loss, and situates them chance. Te visible confrontation between within a discourse of Christian virtue. A ores and coins link to broader questions about painting made by the German artist Matthäus the relationship between natural wealth or Gundelach (1566–1653) ofers a highly elabo- natural riches and the production of value by rate representation of this interconnection “artifcial” means, and furthermore whether (Figure 3). Tis allegory depicts Fortuna bal- art (or human labor in general) should have ancing on a wheel that drives a winch for lif- the power to multiply value. ing materials from a shaf. On her right hand Not only in artworks, but also in texts and ar- side a positively connoted miner, represented tefacts, do the mines appear as polyvalent in his traditional dress, presents an ore speci- spaces: artistically crafed ore specimen men, on her lef side a group of treasure hunt- (Handsteine) made present the mine as divine ers violently dig up the earth in search of a treasure and repository of wealth. Further- coin hoard. Gundelach created this painting more, mines are represented as laboratories or in a time of hyperinfation and opposed artif- workshops of technological and metallurgical cial riches (coins) to natural riches and pits the knowledge and innovation, as important sites learned and honest miner against ignorant, of courtly representation and emblems of the greedy, and reckless treasure hunters; howev- sovereign’s economic power (Figure 1), or as acknowledge religion as a fundamental struc- turing principle of early modern societies. For contemporary miners, and other people ac- tively involved in the mining industry, the hope for rich yields was not just a mere mate- rial quest. Hope—alongside faith and love or charity—was also a Christian virtue that su- perimposed rational thinking with positive expectations about future happenings based on prognostications and confdence in God’s will. Hope means a longing for a happy end, which depends, in addition to knowledge and skill, upon divine providence. Clearly the materials in question—gold, silver, copper, lead, and iron—rather than being sta- ble or fxed entities, functioned simultane- ously as economic resources, scientifc objects, or substances, raw materials, and powerful al- legories as well as phantasms or images of value. Tis research project ofers a new per- Fig. 3: Men’s quest for natural riches: Fortuna, spective of the early modern mining industry the good miner and the treasure hunters. as a sociomaterial phenomenon in its own Matthäus Gundelach, Allegory of Mining (ca. right—constituted by the entanglement of the 1620). Oil on canvas, 133 × 86 cm. Dortmund, actors’ economic practices and scientifc tech- Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte (inv. niques with meaning-making afects and de- no. C 5188). Image © Museum für Kunst und sires. Kulturgeschichte, Dortmund. points of convergence for mutual material de- Tina Asmussen (tasmussen@mpiwg-berlin. sires and risks. In order to encompass the mpg.de) is a Postdoctoral Fellow within MPI- complex semantics of the material, which inte- WG Department I (Structural Changes in Sys- grate social, economic, epistemic, symbolic, tems of Knowledge), directed by Jürgen Renn. and emotional dimensions, it is important to

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