Entrepreneurs and mine owners
After the second half of the 15th century, true mining fever broke out in the mining district of Sterzing-Gossensaß, as revealed by the many records in the Sterzing mining archives. Between 1481 and 1514, no less than 3,280 concessions were granted, of which more than 500 for Schneeberg alone. The beneficiaries came from all social and professional classes: noblemen, ordinary clerks, the clergy, petit bourgeois, artisan craftsmen, shopkeepers and peasants. They took up mining either as their main work or part-time, and invested money or considerable labour in the industry, hoping for rich finds in the new excavations. But only a few of these workers were destined to become wealthy, and Jakob Fugger’s words were generally correct:
‘In mining, it is easier for ten men to become poor than for one man to become rich’. Essentially, great quantities of capital had to be readily available for investments and for miners’ pay. Small entrepreneurs thus either joined forces, or were obliged to cede their rights to others with more funds available.
Rich entrepreneurs and mine owners employed many specialized workers as miners, smiths, woodcutters, foundry workers and charcoal burners, and also hired large numbers of assistants. In this way, thanks to the mining industry, work was plentiful and earnings were sufficient to keep the local population and immigrant workers.
Mining brought general prosperity and enlivened economic life – a fact which enriched owners, dealers, shopkeepers and artisans alike. In the 15th century Sterzing became important, and many families from the town and its surroundings grew rich. Both families of Tyrolese entrepreneurs and large foreign commercial enterprises established themselves there. According to the Land Registry of 1540, of the 160 buildings in the town, 23 were at the service of the mine or inhabited by people occupied in the mining industry. There were also several intermediate ore depots in the town and around it, and foundries at Wiesen, in the Sterzing marsh, at Le Cave and Ridnaun.
The Flam were members of one of the largest local entrepreneurial families, and possessed several houses. Their largest porticoed house, which may still be seen in the centre of the town, bears their coat-of-arms, a flame. Esteem and prosperity also came to the families of Jöchl (main office in the Jöchlsthurn), Pölsterl (house no. 18 – later the Alte Post hotel), Köchl (the first house with small archways), Geizkofler, Kaufmann (now the primary school in Neustadt) and Gaismair von Tschöfs.
Around 1450, the parish church of Sterzing held half the shares in the St. Valentin gallery at Schneeberg and a quarter of those in St. Elisabeth. When the large parish church of Sterzing was begun in 1497, the Schneeberg entrepreneurs and mine owners contributed large sums, and some of their names are immortalized on the high columns of the central nave.
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