Mining and Metallurgy

by

Jeannette Graulau

• LAST MODIFIED: 24 October 2024
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195399301-0539

Introduction

Mining and metallurgy experienced decisive changes linked to available geological possibilities and the political, economic, and cultural transformation of Europe. Extraction of lead, iron, silver, copper, gold, and other metals led to continual adaptations of water-pumping machines and blast furnace technology. With successes and failures, miners adapted wind-blown hearths, bellows-blown furnaces, and cupellation techniques to a whole range of crude ores. Techniques spread from one mining district to the next, expanding metal production in towns of the Black Forest, Devon, Alsace, the Alps and the Dinaric Alps, the Carpathians, the Ore Rich Hills of Tuscany, Mediterranean islands, the Pyrenees, and the Iberian Baetic Cordillera. Over the last decades, historians have emphasized the role of demographic and income expansion in the success of mining and metallurgy. Increasing demand for African gold, Chinese silk, and other Asian goods by European ruling classes and merchants created stimulus for intensifying mining and metallurgical activities. After the Spanish conquest of the Americas, a new method for treating silver ores emerged in Mexico, radically expanding the metallurgical possibilities of mining districts. A corpus of knowledge of mining and metallurgy emerged, distilling, absorbing, and clashing with alchemical views that refused to die easily. Mining bureaucracies, royal mine officers, and mining financiers appeared everywhere competition for mines and metals emerged in a European economy increasingly dependent upon mines, metals, and a changing mining and metallurgical industry.

General Overviews

Foundational studies about the social and economic history of mining and metallurgy are include Bargalló Ardévol 1955, Kellenbenz 1977, Lohmann Villena 1949, Matilla Tascón 1958, and Tylecote 1979. Nef 1987 provides arguments linking mining and smelting to continental economic development. Bakewell 1984, Bailly-Maître and Benoît 1998, and Sánchez Gómez 1997 study the rise, development, and decline of famous mines of the period. Hoover and Hoover 1950 adds a wealth of technical details about European metallic mines.

• Bailly-Maître, Marie C., and Paul Benoît. “Les mines d’argent de la France médiévale.” In Actes des Congrès de la Société des historiens médiévistes de l’enseignement supérieur public, 28e Congrès; L’argent au Moyen Âge. Edited by Claude Gauvard, 17–45. Clermont-Ferrand, France: Éditions de la Sorbonne, 1998.

  Offers a richly documented study of economic conditions of mines located in the northern fringe of the Massif Central, including Melle in Deux-Sèvres, Brioude in Chazelle, Brionnais in Saône-et-Loire, and Puy-Dabert in Charenton. Discusses outputs, mine geometry, and smelting and other technical aspects.

• Bakewell, Peter. Miners of the Red Mountain: Indian Labor in Potosí, 1545–1650. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1984.

  A pioneering historical work about indigenous mining and smelting techniques, native Andean furnaces, and mining labor relations before and after the introduction of amalgamation in Potosí in 1572. Drawing upon primary sources, the author provides a robust historical account of the mita forced labor system and its consequences for mining and metallurgical activities.

• Bargalló Ardévol, Modesto. La minería y la metalurgia en la América española durante la época colonial. México City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1955.

  Written by a prolific chemist, the book is a comprehensive study of the silver amalgamation process invented by Sevillian miner Bartolomé De Medina (b. 1503–d. 1585) in Pachuca, Mexico, in 1555. Presents a historical overview of the adaptation of silver amalgamation to other colonial mines.

• Hoover, Herbert Clark, and Lou Henry Hoover, trans. Georgius Agricola De re Metallica. New York: Dover, 1950.

  Translated from the first Latin edition of 1556. A remarkable translation that added copious notes about mining history since Antiquity. Written by mining engineer Herbert Hoover (b. 1874–d. 1964) before he became president of the United States and geologist Lou Hoover (b. 1874–d. 1944), his wife, who was highly proficient in Latin.

• Kellenbenz, Hermann, ed. Schwerpunkte der Kupferproduktion und des Kupferhandels in Europa, 1500–1650. Cologne: Böhlau Verlag, 1977.

  A formidable collection of papers presented at the Cologne Copper Colloquium in 1969, the book discusses copper mining production and metallurgy that developed in the eastern Alps, Hungary, Slovakia, the Mansfeld basin of Germany, and other places. It presents copious historical details on mining financiers, including the Höchstetter and Fugger families from Augsburg; smelting techniques in Schwaz, Falkenstein, Neusohl, Banská Bystrica, Kutná Horá, and other copper mines; and copper trade routes linking Venice to northern Europe.

• Lohmann Villena, Guillermo. Las minas de Huancavelica en los siglos XVI y XVII. Seville, Spain: Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos Alfonso XII, 1949.

  This authoritative history of the mines of Huancavelica, Peru, offers a comprehensive study of mercury mining and processing, trade, and economic consequences to the colony and the Spanish Empire. Drawing mainly upon primary sources, the author discusses the political world of mercury mining and the power and influence of leaseholders and Spanish encomenderos in the social and economic life of the colony.

• Matilla Tascón, Antonio. Historia de las minas de Almadén. Vol. 1, Desde la época romana hasta el año 1645. Madrid: Ministerio de Hacienda, 1958.

  A remarkable study of extraction, trade, and leasing of mercury from Almadén and the importance of mercury to the imperial economy. Presents an extensive discussion of smelting installations, furnaces, mine inputs, prices of goods and labor, problems associated with flooded mines, and other technical conditions that leaseholders confronted while exploiting Almadén mines. Discusses the early history of Almadén under medieval military orders.

• Nef, John. “Mining and Metallurgy in Medieval Civilisation.” In The Cambridge Economic History of Europe from the Decline of the Roman Empire. Cambridge Economic History of Europe. Edited by Edward Miller, Cynthia Postan, and Michael M. Postan, 691–761. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

  Written by one of the most influential medievalists of his times, the chapter generally discusses drainage, adaptations of mining methods and smelting techniques, and why they matter to agrarian and economic change in western Europe.

• Sánchez Gómez, Julio. Historia de la ciencia y la técnica. Vol. 16, Minería y metalurgia en la Edad Moderna. Madrid: Ediciones AKAL, 1997.

  A splendid monograph that describes the rise of metallurgical and hydraulic techniques in Western Europe, from the thirteenth century to the modern period. It provides a general historical description of mining districts, and explains the evolution of metallic mining and metallurgy in relation to prevailing demographic, income, and monetary conditions.

• Tylecote, Ronald Frank. A History of Metallurgy. London: Metals Society, 1979.

  The book contains two chapters on iron, lead, and silver metallurgy, providing valuable technical information. Neat diagrams on forges, cauldrons, and blast and reverberatory furnaces enrich the discussion. The chapters add brief comparisons between European metallurgical tools and processes and techniques prevalent in western Africa, Persia, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, and Japan.