Vanessa Py, studying "the whole field of exploitation of forests and wood
management for mining and smelting over the period from antiquity to the
Industrial Revolution in Europe" might like to contact the Swedish company
Stora Kopparberg Bergslags AB, whose annual reports claim modestly that
"this is thought to be the oldest joint stock company in the world", the oldest
existant share certificate, now in a Stockholm museum, dating from 1288.
The company, headquartered in Falun, central Sweden, used to operate the
Falun copper mine, now run as a tourist attraction, which went into production
at some point between 850 and 1080, towards the end of the Viking age. A visit
underground shows that large quantities of timber supports were used, and
although initial workings were opencast, I guess firesetting could have been
used in the early underground days. Timber use was so important to the mine
that the company came to own vast areas of woodland, as a consequence of
which Stora's main commercial activity these days is in wood pulp and paper.
One book, with English text, I bought on a visit to Falun is "Stora Kopparberg,
1000 years of an industrial activity", published by Gullers International AB,
ISBN 91-85228-52-4.
Tony Brewis
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