Das deutsche Salinenwesen 1550–1650: Invention—Innovation—Diffusion by Peter Piasecki

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 515 centralized structure played in diffusing both technological and artistic innovations in medieval Europe. Third, Karlsson provides some new evidence of the importance of monasteries in diversifying the use of waterpower beyond grain milling. He argues convincingly that in certain regions of Sweden waterpower was used on a signifi­ cant scale in the medieval period by some monasteries for iron production (vol. 1, pp. 213—15). In addition, Karlsson provides extended and well-illustrated discussions of iron forging and carpen­ try practices in medieval Europe. On the other hand, the section on the techniques used to produce the wrought iron that went into medieval Swedish ironwork is too brief and based on questionable assumptions. The generally accepted date and place for the emergence of the blast furnace are the 15th century and Flanders. But Karlsson accepts contested claims made by several recent authorities that blast furnaces emerged far earlier in Europe, perhaps as early as the 12th century. He suggests further that some of the larger examples of iron construction from late in the medieval period presuppose the use of the blast furnace (vol. 1, p. 362). But he offers no evidence based on the surviving examples of medieval Swedish ironwork that he has cataloged to support this contention. This is, I suspect, because Karlsson made his judgments relating to Swedish medieval ironwork largely on the basis of aesthetic characteristics; he did not rely on archaeometallurgical techniques to determine whether the surviving artifacts were, in fact, produced using the indirect (blast furnace) method of iron production. MedievalIronwork in Sweden is unlikely to attract wide interest among Technology and Culture readers because of its focus on the aesthetic elements of ironwork and because its scope is narrow. But the com­ prehensiveness and depth of the study are admirable, and historians of metallurgy and medieval technology will find some material of interest scattered through Karlsson’s well-documented volumes. Terry S. Reynolds Dr. Reynolds is professor of history at Michigan Technological University. He has written a book on the history of waterpower and numerous entries on iron and iron mining for The Iron and Steel Industry in Nineteenth Century America, a volume in the Encyclopedia ofAmerican Business History and Biography. Das deutsche Salinenwesen 1550—1650: Invention—Innovation—Diffusion. By Peter Piasecki. Idstein: Schulz-Kirchner, 1987. Pp. 387; illustra­ tions, tables, notes, bibliography. DM 78.60 (paper). Although it obviously has to be ancient, the industry of salt production has not generally been thought of as technologically very interesting, and it has been left for exploration by archaeologists and anthropologists—who have not found salt very interesting either, in 516 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE comparison to such topics as ceramics and metallurgy. We owe primarily to economic historians what we know of the history of this essential commodity. Salt production before modern times has, however, been of some interest in European local history where ancient settlements identifi­ able by their names (e.g., Norwich, Salins, Hall, and Halle) as “salt towns” were conspicuous centers of economic life. Of particular interest, because of peculiar problems stemming from mercantilism, are the attempts at self-sufficiency in salt of the numerous ministates of German lands. Until discoveries of deeply buried rock salt in the 19th century, central European communities had the choice of importing salt at great expense, mainly because of the cost of transport of bulk commodities, or of making it by evaporating the brine of local saline springs, also expensive because of the inadequacy of solar heat in northern Europe and the consequent cost in fuel of boiling saline water down. But such was the importance of self-sufficiency in this vital commodity (and for other reasons, such as the fiscal importance of the salt tax) that the effort was made. And it did meet, at least partially, the criterion of self-sufficiency. It is in the attempts that were made to offset the disadvantages that the history of the technology of salt production becomes interesting. This subject has been dealt with in a number of other recent books. Peter Piasecki’s differs in that it attempts, using the profuse published literature on local history—plus a limited...