Innovation technique et rationalisation structurelle dans les centres miniers des cités toscanes et de la couronne d’Aragon

Abstract

Among the most characteristic innovations in the genesis of the modern mining enterprise were small-scale assay techniques. There are archaeological remains attesting to the use of such operations in German mining areas from the late 12th century, but this practice was only followed systematically in the major Sardinian and Tuscan mining areas in the early 14th century, where it aided the introduction of a rational organisation in the operational process through a division of labour based on assays. Fast, precise and reproducible, these analyses, performed by sworn-in experts, guaranteed trust among the various participants in the exploitation. There are regulations making it possible to track the importation of this standardised organisation to Catalonia by the Aragonese kingdom following the conquest of Sardinia. Nonetheless, the failure of attempts to apply this mining procedure to small deposits shows that there was a minimum scale beneath which this new mining economic system was not viable.

Keywords

• industry
• Mediterranean
• metallurgy
• mining law
• silver
• technical innovation