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# Mining

Although the mining of salt underwent less change between 1770 and 1830 than that of the other principal resource, iron, this 'small' change would have a lasting effect. An old-established mine, at Szék, closed down around 1728, but, in the 1790s, a new salt mine was opened at Marosújvár. The salt was easy to extract and to ship; it could be loaded almost directly on to river boats, obviating the need for long, laborious road transport. However, manpower had to be transferred from the older salt mines, and necessarily with some compulsion, for the miners, who also engaged in farming, were reluctant to leave their ancestral home. The prospect of a transfer even sparked off, in summer 1804, a protest by miners at Kolozs, and, for a time, the Marosújvár mine was worked by soldiers. The situation was eventually stabilized and, by the mid-1800s, the output of Marosújvár far surpassed that of the older salt mines. Two innovations were introduced in salt-mining technology in the 1780s and 1790s. Machinery invented by the mining engineer Aloisius Russbazki was put into service at the Kolozs mine in 1788. Then György Mészáros, a mining engineer at Marosújvár, developed a spiral basket system for lifting the salt. The new machinery was installed in the 1790s, after it had won the approval of mining experts in Vienna.

{2-637.} In gold mining, annual production at the beginning of the period amounted to 88,483 balance weights (one balance weight = 4.375 grams), plus an indeterminate part of the 7,110 balance weights generated in foundry exchange. The amount of gold that passed through free exchange increased rapidly, from 89,711 balance weights in 1780 to 110,136 in 1786, and 113,523 in 1787; in the next decade, the output in free exchange fell back to under 80,000 balance weights, while that in foundry exchange rose to 40,570 balance weights. The amount in free exchange would fluctuate (in the inflationary year 1810, it fell to 39,875 balance weights), but by 1830 it reached 135,413 balance weights. When part of the 65,034 balance weights of precious metals produced in foundry exchange (in 1831) is factored in, the total gold output can be estimated at 160,000 balance weights. Thus, over a sixty year period, the output of Transylvania's gold mines, which were all in private hands, had almost doubled. In the closing years of the period, the annual output had a value of some 960,000 forints. In the same period, the annual output of silver had a value of some 89,200 forints.

A few of the larger and more modern mines were responsible for most of the upswing in gold production. One of these mines, at Nagyág, employed 12 officials and 537 mineworkers (including some ancillary workers) in 1770. The latter category included 190 actual miners, 99 haulers and 26 other transport workers, as well as 49 carpenters in charge of pit props. The children employed to sort out the ore constituted a distinct, and populous category. The number of mineworkers rose to 809 in 177l, and 884 in 1782. Some 90 percent of them were freemen, and the rest, villeins. Many nationalities were represented among the miners, including Hungarian, Romanian, German, and Czech. In 1770, a miner's average monthly wage was in the range of 8–10 forints, considerably more than the income of a peasant. Transylvania's second largest precious metal mine, at Boica in Hunyad County, employed 256 workers and {2-638.} officials in 1771, and 275 in 1782. There, the 'Geding-Häuer' miners earned around 8 forints a month, the 'Schicht' miners 3 forints 45 kreuzers, the haulers 5 forints, and the carpenters, 4–5 forints. These mines were shining examples of private enterprise; they were managed by energetic entrepreneurs and employed, for the most part, freemen as wage labourers.

There were two noteworthy developments in the metal mining sector. One involved technological innovation. A clockmaker from Kolozsvár, Sámuel Enyedi, developed in 1770 a mechanism for lifting both ore and groundwater. The closing years of the century were marked by a spate of inventions. Felix Franzenau, the mine manager at Nagyág, introduced a new water-lifting device, which, if necessary, could be used for ore as well. He also developed a new gold-washing machine run by hydraulic power. Another employee of the Nagyág mine, Johann Huber, invented a different type of gold-washing machine. A third mining expert at Nagyág, Ursu Munteanu, devised, in 1796, a new type of crusher, and the following year, yet another type of gold-washing machine. The other development was the enrolment at the Selmecbánya mining academy, in Upper-Hungary, of a large number of young Transylvanians. Even the diarist Sámuel Fogarasi felt tempted in his youth to train as a mining engineer at Selmec; this son of a Marosvásárhely craftsman was fascinated by technology, but, in the end, his conservative instincts prevailed, and he chose to enter the priesthood. By 1825, there were so many Transylvanian students at the Selmecbánya academy that they established their own association and held regular meetings.

Iron mining registered a strong growth in output, but the most significant changes took place in smelting. In copper mining, the main development was the opening in the early 1800s of a mine at Csíkszentdomokos. This mine was soon taken over by an Armenian entrepreneur, who made it flourish. Around 1829, its value was estimated at more than 500,000 forints. In light of contemporary {2-639.} methods of evaluation, this meant that the mine generated annual profits of at least 30,000 forints. The Csíkszentdomokos mine clearly dominated its sector for, in the period 1825–30, the average net revenue of all copper mines in Transylvania amounted to around 36,500 forints.

To sum up, the main developments of the period in the mining sector were the opening of the salt mine at Marosújvár, the strong involvement of private enterprise in the extraction of precious metals and copper, the rise in the output of iron, and the emergence of a technical intelligentsia.