Der Bergbau als Faktor der Veränderung von Stadt-Land-Beziehungen am Beispiel des Ostalpenraumes

Abstract

In many areas of Europe, there was a particular mining boom in the early-modern period. The eastern Alpine area, that is, the area of present-day Austria, participated in this boom. All important sectors of mining – precious metals, salt and particularly iron – were concerned. The paper examines whether the growth of mining changed town-country relations between the fourteenth and the sixteenth centuries by means of two approaches. As a first step, spatial conditions for production and metal-processing are compared between individual sectors of mining. In this respect, the formation of specialized regions beyond a town-country dichotomy is investigated for the case of iron mining and processing, which is further differentiated by means of a comparison to southern Germany and northern Italy. On this basis, the idea that mining promoted the rise of towns, which is widespread in the scholarly literature, appears to be questionable. Secondly, town-country relations within a region specializing in the provision for a mining area are being analysed. In late-medieval western Lower Austria, the relationship between towns and market towns experienced strong changes due to the implications of food provision for the Styrian Erzberg mining region. This can be regarded as strong evidence for the potential of change caused by the rise of mining. The example of this district dedicated to the provision of a mining area highlights a different picture of town-country-relations.