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of local investors, who took advantage of the possibilities of the
„Lehenschaftssystem", the „feudal tenant-mining system" (Gruber, 1993; Ludwig, 1984 and 1989) . For mine-workers on the lowest social and economical levels who (-by nature and experience-) were gifted with technical skills, a talent for work-organisation and a sense for economical entrepreneurship could advance to the position of a leader of a „lehenschaft", that is to say to a position similar (-but not equal!-) to that of a mine-tenant, the main difference being that the „lehenschaft"-leader did not have to give a pre-fixed percentage of the production to the owner of the mine and then was free to take personal economical advantage of the rest; instead he had to hand in the total production to the owner of the mine for which, in return, he was paid a very low price of about 30% of the real value. This amount was reduced by divers overhead-costs and the sums he had to pay to one or two, in rare cases even more wageworkers in his employ. Though, considering the general work-system of the 16th century, it may appear very amazing, but it is a proven fact that with exceptionally good luck the „lehenschaft"-leader could accumulate some capital with which to buy shares in mines and climb up the social ladder step by step until ultimately he achieved the highest rank
in the hierarchy, that of a rich mine-owner.
Best known in literary and oral tradition is the family of the Weitmosers (Strauss, 1986), who whithin the span of three generations and with skill and a good deal of luck, made their way from poor agricultural workers up to tremendously rich mining entrepreneurs, the embodiment of which certainly was Christof Weitmoser I, to whom the title of „Kaiserlicher Rat", emperial adviser, was conferred and wo was a long-standing creditor to Archduke Ferdinand of the Tyrol, the later emperor (Ludwig-Gruber, 1987, in full detail).
The production of silver and gold reached its culmination-point in the year 1557 when the Salzburg mines yielded no less than 850 kilograms of pure gold and 2723 kilograms of pure silver. We thank these exact figures to Hans Goldseisen, a servant-official of the Salzburg Archbishop, holding the position of an administrator of the „Silberhandel" (Gruber-Ludwig, 1980, in full detail), which was the Salzburg sovereign's institution for his silver (and gold) „trade". The name, however, is misleading. In reality the
„Silberhandel" did not concern itself much with free trade, but mainly with the acquisition of the whole production of gold- and silver, that the mining-entrepreneurs (by law!-)were forced to hand in to the sovereign - against the payment of coins far below the real value of the respective quantities of noble metals on the free market.
Goldseisen's precise recordings, written down in five thick folio-volumes, are now in the deposits of the Salzburger Landesarchiv and have been analysed in detail (Gruber-Ludwig, 1980, with all the details following here), so that on this basis the following surveys in tabular form could here be established.
Please look at survey 1(=dia 1)
The first tabular survey covers the years 1556 till 1559, the four „best years".
The total production of silver handed in to the „Silberhandel" is broken down into its origins from four different mining centers. Very dominatingly the lead is held by the mining center of Gastein/Rauris with 81.7 %, surpassing the Lungau's 15.6 % as second in importance by far. Particularly in Gastein/Rauris the extremely positive economical development entailed also specific negative consequences, that of air-pollution and detrimental effects on the environment (Gruber, 1993).
Please look at survey 2 "comparison gold-silver" (= Dia 2)
The above tabular survey shows a comparison of silver against gold. The average production in the years mentioned above amounted to 2563
kilograms of silver and 672 kilograms of gold per year. The respective mo
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