Kopalnie siarki w Swoszowicach – status prawny i formy zarządu w czasach staropolskich i w okresie zaborów

Abstract

The beginning of sulphur ore mining in Swoszowice, having lasted for almost 500 years, goes back to the 15th century when the need for sulphur increased along with the fi rearm production development. In the Middle Ages alchemists called sulphur the ‘element of fl ammability’. After the invention of fi rearm sulphur gained big importance. It became an ingredient of gunpowder. The real impulse for sulphur mining development in Swoszowice, a village near Krakow, was the publication of two documents:Village Land Act in Swochowice and Diploma, that permitted mining in Swoszowice and gave a privilege to miners guild (co-partnership extracting sulphur ore) that enabled them to carry out extraction of sulphur in the whole country. It was given in 1415 by the Polish king,Wladyslaw II Jagiello. In the beginning, the miners guild consisted of well-known Cracow burghers: Michal Fayger, Piotr Slodownik, Mikolaj Soltys from Stradom and a mineworker Krystian. Then it became a part of goods of Corpus Christy Monastery in Kazimierz and after the partitions of Poland it was a state-owned entity until 1887. Sulphur mining in Swoszowice made Jagiellonian dynasty powerful and infl uential. It lasted almost continually till 1886. At that time the pit in Swoszowice was the biggest in Europe. In the 18th century 250 workers worked there and 2,5 tones of sulphur were mined each year. In the late 19th century (1871-1876) the mine in Swoszowice covered 80-90 % of sulphur demand in Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. There were many reasons for the fall of the sulphur mine in Swoszowice such as: predatory economy, decrease in sulphur ore and increase of production costs, caused for example by the rise of wood prices (wood was needed to make protection systems of the shafts), groundwater fl oods in the shafts. Miners were also exposed to harmful impact of hydrogen sulfi de. Additionally, the mine business in Swoszowice was negatively infl uenced by ongoing competition, the renewal of sulphur production in Sicilia, cheaper sulphur production from pirytes in Hungary, markdown of tariffs on sulphur carriage as a consequence of the Trade Act between Austria and Italy lowering the duty on imported sulphur from Sicilia. The last attempts to restart the mine in Swoszowice were made during the World War I, in 1917. For that reason the Polish Sulphur Factory consortium was created. It conducted mining works in the area of bathing facilities. Two shafts were deepened: Elzbieta and Piotr. Sulphur ore, with 22–25% sulphur content, was discovered on a depth of 18 meters in the fi rst one. The mining works were stopped though.