Wild men in Braunschweig – Economies of hope and fear in early modern mining

This article investigates the myth of the Wild Man and the figure's symbolic and emotional significance for the Harz mining industry. From about the sixteenth century onward, the Wild Man became a point of identity in the montane region of the Harz Mountains. By analysing the appropriation and meanings of the Wild Man and his connection to mining in different media, especially on coins, this article stresses the importance of investigating not only material and empirical evidence, but also considering the imaginary and affective implications of mining. The changing perceptions of mythical figures such as the Wild Man reflected the desires, hopes, and anxieties of historical persons. They reflected the circumstance that mines represented sources of great wealth, but also delivered terror, injury, and death.

access the subterranean riches. In honour of the creature they named the first silver mine 'Old Wild Man'. 1 Although these stories never state precisely when this encounter happened, nor give the name of the reigning duke, the local myth connects the presence of wild folk in a specific rural territory with the subterranean realm of precious metals.
From about the sixteenth century onwards the Wild Man -a figure who was ubiquitous in medieval and early modern German culture, particularly in medieval art and literature (going far beyond the confines of the Middle Ages) 2became a point of identity for the early modern mining industry in the Harz: mining pits and towns were named after him, he was a prominent character in local festive traditions, he was a bearer of the coat of arms for the Welf dynasty, notably for the Dukes of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, and most prominently, his image came to adorn the reverse of a new form of silver money, thaler coins, in the 1530s. The figure of the Wild Man was used as an emblem on medals and coins coming from the Harz mints until the beginning of the nineteenth century. 3 This ever increasing presence of the Wild Man in the area around Wolfenbüttel in the sixteenth century can be contextualized within the broader reception of this folkloric creature and his transformation into a figure signifying a national identity. As Stephanie Leitch has convincingly shown, the fashioning of the Wild Man as an 'ur-German' ancestor, which was motivated by the rediscovery of Tacitus' Germania in 1473, linked humanist explorations of the past to a search for the origins of the Germans. 4 In the following I will concentrate on the links between mining, minting, and myth in order to tease out the intrinsic logics of the early modern mining industry. Such aspects are often lost sight of within a history of technology and economy aligned to the transformative, capitalist character of mining that has become so dominant in the industrial age. 5 Economic and social historians have carefully worked out how mining's revival and expansion in the later fifteenth century brought an influx of outsiders to the mainly rural settings of the Erzgebirge, the Tyrol, and the Harz Mountains. Peasants were drawn away from their traditional livelihoods and increasingly began to earn an income as Häuer [hewers] in the mines. 6 Migration and new working conditions brought social differentiation and rapid change into these rural settings, which were furthermore altered by the founding of mining towns and the introduction of urban institutions, mentalities, and values. 7 East German economic historians have even gone so far as to consider the emerging group of miners as a proletariat in a proto-Marxist sense. 8 Social historians later rejected this view of a collective class-consciousness -this was too simple an explanation of the complex social phenomenon the emerging group of miners represented, which modern terms only awkwardly describe. Nevertheless a specific form of social distinctiveness has still been acknowledged. 9 The history of mining in the Harz, taking the material and symbolic evidence of the Wild Man into consideration, instead means to undercut this transformative and modernizing narrative by articulating the unarticulated, invisible, and the resilient -and to do so without simply arguing for a countermovement, which in the case of mining means to put emphasis on tradition, and the continuity of knowledge and beliefs. It reveals how the perception of the ore mines as sites of unlimited possibilities, technological innovation, holders of countless treasures, but also as places of death and fear, dominated the social, cultural, and economic aspects of early modern mining activity.
The Wild Man, as I will show, plays an important role in human interactions with metallic materials, as he points to the symbolic and emotional dimensions of the early modern mining rush. Focusing on this mythic figure, this article aims to broaden economic history's insistence on material and empirical evidence by examining imaginary and affective qualities such as the promises and expectation of finding metal ores, the materialization of desires, as well as the productivity of hope and fear. Far from being of secondary relevance, this perspective contributes to a history of mining as a sociocultural phenomenon in its own right -a phenomenon constituted by the entanglement of the actors' economic practices and techniques with meaning-making affects and emotions. By emphasizing the mystical, symbolic, and affective qualities of the Wild Man, my analysis of early modern mining and coinage in the Harz region sheds light on the ambiguity of technological innovation, the notion of material wealth, and the promise of precious metals. MINING  areas belonging to the so-called Upper Harz. 10 As with the mining boom in Saxony, Bohemia, and Tyrol during the second half of the fifteenth century, a new era of mining began, characterized by its labour-and capital-intensive nature. In a relatively short space of time, valuable silver began to be mined at Grund, Wildemann, and Zellerfeld. The silver was then directly turned into coins in the local mint. The rural environment of the Upper Harz began to change rapidly as a result of the revived mining activity. The loose settlements quickly transformed into mining towns, which Duke Heinrich bestowed with city rights, such as Zellerfeld in 1529 and Wildemann in 1534. The latter was named after a bountiful mining pit that the miners had baptised 'Wild Man '. 11 Yet, in comparison to the mining regions in the Saxon and Bohemian parts of the Erzgebirge, valuable metalliferous ores were far less plentiful in the Upper Harz mining areas. The sixteenth-century origin myth of the Rammelsberg, a mining site in the northern part of the Harz Mountains, next to the imperial city of Goslar, mentions that the ores were abundant, but their silver content was rather poor. Lazarus Ercker (1528-1594), a sixteenth-century assayer that later became an imperial mining official, recounts the legend in his 1565 treatise on the Rammelsberg: while on a hunting trip, a knight called Ramm, who was a vassal of Emperor Otto the Great, tied his horse to a tree in order to stalk game in the rugged terrain on foot. Impatient for the return of his master, the horse pushed the ground with a hoof, and exposed an ore vein that led to an ore deposit. Ramm brought a specimen of ore to the Emperor, who consulted an assayer. It turned out that the silver and lead content was rather poor, but nevertheless the Emperor ordered that a mine be set up here, which he named 'Rammelsberg' after his knight. The emperor's 10 For a more detailed analysis of the specificities of the early modern mining industry in the Harz Mountains see especially the very rich work of Christoph Bartels, Hans-Joachim Kraschewski and Ekkehard Henschke. Christoph Bartels, 'The Production of Silver, Copper, and  decision to start mining in this spot turned out to be very wise, because the output was tremendous, 'in the whole Christendom such huge masses of ore have never been found in one single mountain until the present day'. 12 As the legend of the imperial hunter Ramm indicates, sourcing metals in the Harz was not an easy task, but nevertheless extraction sites here ranked among the most important silver, lead, and copper mines in early modern central Europe. The main deposit between Wildemann and Zellerfeld was a particular case in point, where the desired metal was quite difficult to extract. The invasion of groundwater was a constant problem for the miners. Long adits (horizontal tunnels for working or draining a mine) had to be newly driven, and those from earlier periods had to be restored and extended. This demanded a huge number of skilled workmen, hard bodily labour, expensive machines, as well as costly technical and metallurgical procedures.
One of the most significant characteristics of Renaissance mining was the high mobility of miners, smelters, mint masters, and assayers. Word of rich silver findings in the Harz spread widely and rapidly. The term Berggeschrey [mountain clamour] was coined by contemporaries to describe this phenomenon -it points to a process of economic dynamism and the circulation of people, knowledge, materials, and money at a frantic pace. But the clamour's intensity and impulsiveness bears also an affective dimension, meaning that actors were driven by material desires, hopes, and fears. Many miners were attracted by the promises of the newly found natural riches. By proclaiming freedoms and privileges for those willing to come to his territory, Duke Heinrich enticed miners further, and recruited experts from Saxony and Bohemia. 13 12 'Es schreiben die alten Sachsen und ist eine gemeine Rede zu Goslar/ Das der Rammelsbergk wunderbarlicher weis erfunden sey. Nemlich zue den zeitten Kaiser Otten des Ersten/ welcher wonete uf der Harzburgk und vielfeldig in den Harzgebirgen jagen lies/ begab sichs auff eine zeit/ Das seiner vornemen Jeger einer mit namen Ramm/ aus befehl des Keysers an den vorbergen des Hartzes jagete [...]

THE WILD MAN THALER
It was not only skilled workmen and metallurgical experts who were attracted by the promises of riches and thus migrated to the Harz; investors were also keen to profit from the mines. Since the transport and installation of hoists, ventilation and pumping systems, hammers for crushing ores, and smelteries for ore processing were extremely expensive, the flow of capital had to be guaranteed via shared investment. For contemporary mining investors the purchase of Kuxen [mining shares] was a very attractive venture. 14 If the yields were abundant, they were paid with 'good' money; mostly fine silver coins coming directly from the mining town's mints. 15 The increase of silver production went therefore hand in hand with an increase of silver coins that led to the dominant currency (the Rhenish gold guilder) gradually being replaced by silver. 16 In 1531 Heinrich the Younger followed on the heels of the Saxon and Bohemian rulers and founded a mint within the walls of the monastery of Reichenberg, where he started to produce fine silver coins, named thaler, with silver from the Upper Harz mines.
In 1538 the duke issued a new series of thaler, minted with Heinrich's portrait on the obverse and the symbol of the powerful figure of legend and folklore, the Wild Man, on the reverse (Fig. 1). The hairy creature wears no clothes and is holding a tree trunk in his right hand and an ore specimen in his left. He is frontally depicted, with his genitals obviously exposed. He seems to be moving, walking out of the edge of the coin. The deep connection 14 By the end of the fifteenth century Kuxen appeared as a legal form in Saxon mining ordinances and spread to all major mining districts in Middle Germany and Further Austria. One Kux guaranteed profit sharing from the mining of precious and semi-precious ores. Each mine in the districts of Saxony and Bohemia was divided into several Kuxe -normally 128 -which people of any rank and from anywhere could buy in mining towns and the cities of fair trade. By investing their money in Kuxe these people became shareholders of a certain mine. This form of investment was extremely successful. See Adolf Zycha 'Das Wort Kux', Zeitschrift für Bergrecht, 62 (1921) between the Wild Man and mineral and wooden resources is clearly signified by the ore specimen and the trunk. This type of Wild Man thaler is a completely new creation, inspired by local legends and folklore. Traditionally, images of saints adorned coins, although portraits of rulers were increasing; the depiction of pagan beasts on money had not yet been seen. 17 By adopting the Wild Man as a symbol on the currency, Heinrich the Younger might have wished to alert potential investors to the rise of his new mining town to a position of some importance, locally and in the region, and to advertise the increasing silver yield of the Upper Harz. Through their high circulation, excellent visibility, and mobility coins served as a useful medium through which to promote an authoritative message. The two elements, the introduction of silver coins and the motif of the Wild Man were closely connected with the productivity of the duke's lands and the solvency of his mines.

MINING DEMONS, WILD MEN, AND THE REALM OF SILVER
Miners in the early modern period had to face extreme working conditions, as is still the case today. They constructed their tunnels at great depths under the earth, with what they referred to as Schweiß und blutsawre Arbeit [sweat and blood-sour work], and were constantly under threat from collapsing shafts,  invading groundwater, and toxic fumes. In Georgius Agricola's (1494-1555) foundational text De re metallica (1556) the author reflects on voices critical of mining, who see the essential danger involved as reason enough to avoid such activity. Those opposed to the endeavour believe that mining is a perilous occupation to pursue, because the miners are sometimes killed by the pestilential air which they breathe; sometimes their lungs rot away; sometimes the men perish by being crushed in masses of rock; sometimes, falling from the ladders into the shafts, they break their arms, legs, or necks. 18 The risky and precarious working conditions affected the miners' perception of nature, life, and death in manifold ways.
The hard labour and extreme experience of work underground made mining an ideal frame of reference for the emergence of countless myths and legends. Gerhard Heilfurth's collection of Bergmannssagen (miners' myths) is still an essential reference for historians of early modern mining. 19 These legends deal predominantly with hope, threat, uncertainty, and chance in different locations and contexts all over Europe. The Harz region produced a huge amount of miner's legends that are tightly connected to the essential precariousness of the mining venture. By reading these sources the notion of the mines as sites of danger and uncertainty becomes evident and transforms mining into an area of ambiguity; on the one hand a divine gift and a gateway to untold wealth, on the other a sure path to the unforeseen and life-threatening.
Hardanus Hake (d. 1611), a sixteenth-century pastor of Wildemann, reports in his chronicle of Harz mining from around 1580 how a Deamon Metallicus that the miners called Berg Männlein, and which took the form of a friar, haunted the rich pit Wilder Mann. This evil spirit protected the silver ores, frightened the miners, and caused great damage. 20 Paracelsus (around 1493-1541) discussed the interconnection of rich ore-bearing veins and spirits at length. 21 The presence of demons in the mines was also a belief that Agricola noted. Some of them do the miners no harm, they only stroll through the galleries, and they seem to work. Sometimes they hollow a gallery, sometimes they fill carriers with extracted material, sometimes they move the hoisting machine, and sometimes they tease the workers. They preferably do this in mines where rich ores are to be extracted or where there is at least hope to find much silver. Others in contrast are actually most harmful, such as the mining spirit who viciously attacked miners in the pit called Rosenkranz [Rosary] in Annaberg several years ago, where twelve of them died. Many people know this story and they have abandoned the pit although it is rich. 22 Early modern miners as well as contemporaneous treasure hunters were highly alert to such supernatural phenomena, since they knew very well that these figures always promised riches. But how were these mining demons connected with Duke Heinrich's Wild Man, and the ore specimen he demonstratively holds in his hands? According to Paracelsus, the Wild Man is a creature of flesh and blood, similar to humans, but lacking a soul and therefore has no sense of God. Moreover, he is characterized as being coarse, rough, tall, and strong, but with a shy nature. 23 The Wild Man shuns human contact, 'settling, if possible, in the most remote and inaccessible parts of the forest, and making his bed in crevices, caves, or the deep shadow of overhanging branches'. 24 As becomes evident through these few characterizations, the Wild Man is a creature from the woods or remote unpopulated areas. Any relation to ores is not indicated. But the naming of pits after the wild forest creature was quite common, and is a tendency that had been in evidence since the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century in mining districts in Freiberg and Schneeberg. It is possible nevertheless that the Wild Man migrated along with the miners from the Erzgebirge to the Harz; among the first pits that the miners dug in the Upper Harz one can find a site named Wilder Mann.
The Wild Man indicates an environment that is uncanny, raw, unpredictable, foreign, and uncultured. This is exactly the sort of terrain where promises of untold riches grow and the lure that one may get hold of such treasure hangs in the air. Richard Bernheimer, in his analysis of the mythical personality of the Wild Man, elaborates in great detail on the dual nature of the wild folk. He disclosed the relationship between the Wild Man Silvanus, benefactor 22 'ut io camur genus certe daemonum in fodinis nonnullis versari compertum est: quorum quidam nihil damni metallicis inferunt, sed in puteis vagantur, ac laboribus cum nihil agant, se exercere videntur: nunc cavando venam, nunc ingerendo in situlos id quod effossum est, nunc machinam versando tractoriam, nunc iritando operarios, idem potissimum faciunt in his specubus è quibus multum argentum effoditur, vel magna eius inveniendi spes est. Alii vero noxii admodum sunt, ut ille qui ante aliquot annos Annebergi in fodina cui nomen Corona Rosacea, tantopere infestabat metallicos, ut duodecim, quae res multis nota est, nescarit, ac ea de re fodina, quantumuis argento dives esset, relicta fuit.' Georgius Agricola, Bermannus sive de re metallica (Basel: Froben, 1530), 38-9. 23  Therefore, the Wild Man is benevolent and evil at one and the same time.
He is an image of desire, because as a demon he shares nature's secrets and is in possession of arcane and useful knowledge, but he is also an image of ferocity, terror, and punishment. This characteristic mediation between life and death made the Wild Man an ideal personification of the uncertain, dangerous, but at the same time promising mining industry, and -as we will later see -of the monetary economy as a whole.

THE MINE AS A SITE OF HOPE AND FEAR
Early modern literature on mining and metallurgy was fuelled by the rapid expansion of mining as an industry. Discussions on material wealth and financial profit were crucial themes. Georgius Agricola exposes in his dialogue Bermannus the profound knowledge and practical skills a learned miner must possess regarding the nature and composition of ores, about the various technologies needed for their extraction, and the procedures for processing ores. But besides knowledge and skill, emotions play a crucial role in this text. The treatise is composed as a dialogue between Bermann, a learned miner, and two physicians, Naevius and Ancon. At the offset, a dispute among these men occurs, as to whether or not choosing to invest in mining is a wise decision. Although Bermann ardently defends the view that mining is a good investment, where many have acquired incredible riches with little effort, he asserts that there is no certainty in this business; each person who wants to engage successfully in mining requires courage and hope. Bermann says 'one always has to hope; the likes of us [meaning, the miners] possess nothing except hope.' 28 However, his opinion is highly disputed by his interlocutor Ancon, who does not see why he should participate in such a venture where only 'hope' is guaranteed. Bermann counters, Your exaggerated caution will always be an impediment! You will never become a good miner, and never rich. With this excessive caution a farmer would never sow, because he must fear a disaster. Nor would a merchant trade overseas, as he must reckon with a shipwreck. And no one would do his military service, as the outcome of every war is uncertain. But everyone relies on hope, and in most cases this works out well. No one has ever made anything with a weak and timid heart, and nor will he bring it to a conclusion. 29 The specific risk mentality that becomes evident in Bermann's speech is sewn like a red thread through sixteenth-and seventeenth-century mining manuals. Even Paracelsus, in his medical work Von der Bergsucht und anderen Bergkrankheiten [On the Miners' Sickness and Other Diseases of Miners] (1530) dryly states that there is no gain without the danger of losing one's life. 30 When taking risks, miners had positive or negative expectations of the future outcome, which they expressed in emotions of hope and fear. Both feelings, hope and fear, are the positive and negative expectations connected 28  to something desired or needed, which have a cognitive as well as an affective dimension. 31 Knowledge and skill as well as hope, fear, desire, and need were therefore factors integral to the sense-and decision-making processes that encouraged the miners to go down into the darkness, take on the dangerous task of mining, hoping to be successful. This ambiguity that is so crucial for the mining industry is inextricably tied up with the ambivalent notion towards wealth and money in Christian society. 32 Many mining treatises emphasize the negative aspects of natural riches, which are the raw material for money, tools, and arms. Georgius Agricola, for example, opens De re metallica (1556) with a display of contemporary moral criticism on the mining rush and, in good humanist tradition, draws heavily from classical sources such as Pliny, Ovid, and Aristophanes. Mining and metallurgy are denounced for being the reason for humanity's cultural decay, which becomes manifest in deteriorating morality, the origins of property, self-interest, crime, aggression, and war. But all these examples possess a complementary aspect, because there are many economic, social, and cultural benefits that emerged from the mining industry as well, including the advantage of the monetized economy over the barter economy, the economic utilization of uncultivated land, the provision of employment, and the spread of education and religion. 33 A direct predecessor of Agricola's narrative is a fictional work entitled Iudicium Iovis, written by the Bohemian humanist Paulus Niavis (around 1460-1517) between 1485 and 1490. 34 In a mythological court setting Mother Nature sues the miner. She appears maltreated, bloody, and tearful in front of a judge represented by Jupiter. Nature accuses the miner of violent treatment caused by his greedy search for natural riches. Contrary to convention, Niavis departs from the Classical view at a crucial point in the story. He does not excoriate humans for their cruel exploitation of Mother Nature; with a certain brash tone he excuses and even defends human activity by blaming nature's lavish distribution of riches. Man is supposed to exploit and therefore wound nature in order to guarantee his subsistence. It's human's destiny to ransack mountains; they have to dig pits, they have to cultivate lands, and do trading business. By doing this they have to offend nature, they have to reject the sciences, disturbing Pluton and even search in waterways for ores. But their body will be devoured by the Earth, suffocated by poisonous airs; it gets drunk from wine and suffers hunger -but, there's a good thing about it: no one knows all these dangers of any type that simply cannot be separated from human beings. Good bye. 35 Since the pagan goddess Fortuna has the last word, the miner's activities are depicted as constantly teetering on the brink of the abyss, similar to Fortuna's balancing on the globe. Miners had to factor in risk if they were to get their rewards. The Wild Man, the Bergmännlein, or the Bergmönch function as figures that shed a certain light on the human desire for riches, by simultaneously giving emphasis to the precariousness of achieving a happy outcome. Moreover, they also indicate the morally and physically destructive potential of such ventures. These figures came into being at a time of environmental and economic change, and when people, landscapes, materials, and money circulated at a quickened pace. The natural economy where wild folk lived without the benefit of agriculture and metallurgy was opposed to new industrialized landscapes and a monetary economy.

THE WILD MAN OF WOLFENBÜTTEL
Duke Heinrich's Wild Man thaler aptly illustrates this ambivalence between natural wealth (ore) and artificial wealth (money). 36 On the one hand it points to the natural riches of the Harz Mountains and to dreams of hidden treasure. On the other, it points to the volatile and unstable nature of natural resources and the monetary system as a whole. The economic situation during the Central European mining boom of the sixteenth century was marked by an increase in prices and a gradual devaluing of the currency. Although silver production in the German mining regions increased, there was a constant lack of bullion. 37 'Good' silver coins with a 35 'Es ist die Bestimmung der Menschen, dass sie Berge durchwühlen; sie müssen Erzgruben anlegen, müssen Felder bebauen und Handel treiben. Dabei müssen sie bei der Erde Anstoß erregen, müssen die Wissenschaft ablehnen, den Pluton beunruhigen und auch in den Wasserläufen nach Erzen suchen. Ihr Leib aber wird von der Erde verschlungen, durch böse Wetter erstickt; er wird trunken vom Weine, er leidet Hunger -aber, was sehr gut ist: keiner kennt die vielen Gefahren sonstiger Art, die nun einmal vom Menschen unzertrennlich sind. Lebe wohl. ' Ibid.,38. 36 On the ambivalence between natural wealth and money see also high content of precious metal were rare items in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century payment transactions. 'Good' coins were regularly melted down, silver was extracted for reasons of governmental or personal profit and 'evil' coins with a much lower silver content were produced with some part of the silver. Fine silver coins were therefore perceived not only as good currency, but also a highly desirable commodity. This fraught financial situation led to a huge political debate on currency and coinage. There were continuous negotiations concerning the intrinsic value and exchange rates of coins. Many treatises of the sixteenth century dealt with an increase in prices and a draining of good coins occurring at the same time as a flood of bad ones; for example Martin Luther (1483-1546), Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), and Georgius Agricola elaborated on the subject from perspectives of theology, political economy, and natural history. 38 They took their lead from Aristotelian monetary philosophy and argued for the intrinsic value of coins. Following Nicole Oresme (c.1330-1382) they considered the manipulation of currency -particularly debasement -as a form of usury. 39 A look at the princely decrees of Heinrich the Younger and his successors shows that these rulers were constantly concerned about their currency, and condemned deceitful mint masters or other figures threatening governmental order. Duke Heinrich used the symbolic idea of the Wild Man to legitimize his silver thaler as an uncorrupted medium of exchange -the inscription non vidi justum derelictum [I have never seen a just man abandoned] (Psalm 36: 25) relates the coin's material and authoritative nature to the Wild Man, who represents an uncorrupted race. The Wild Man, thus, ennobles the coins, turning them into objects with pure natural value. Similarly, in contemporary monetary theory, coins not only serve as a medium for measurement and exchange but also as a commodity, thanks to their intrinsic content of precious metal. instabilities and uncertainties of the monetary system are articulated as well, as the Wild Man also stands for the unknown and the unexplored. Just as at this discursive level, the coin's power was instrumentalized more explicitly within a concrete political debate. Heinrich used the Wild Man's unpredictable ferociousness to substantiate his claim on his authority in a harsh conflict with the city of Goslar, dating back to 1526. 41 In this year the duke settled financial debts originating from the late thirteenth century, when his ancestors mortgaged mining and forestal areas to Goslar's town council. 42 He reclaimed the rights over wood resources and the output of the silver mines for himself and deprived the citizens of the Imperial City of their traditional source of income. The Wild Man as a symbol for the forest and the mines reinforced Heinrich's claim in his case against the city. His conflict with Goslar heightened when the city was put to siege, which led to its capitulation in 1552. By placing the Wild Man on his coins the duke showed his uncorrupted, good side but at the same time communicated the threat of his anger.

TAMING THE WILD MAN
Julius of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1528-1589), who took over the duchy in 1568, chose for his first series of thaler coins the same Wild Man chosen by his father Heinrich, but instead of an ore specimen, the creature holds a candle in his hands (Fig. 2). 43 This thaler was minted between 1569 and 1589. Between 1586 and 1589 a further variant was issued with the Wild Man holding an oil lamp in his hand and additionally a skull, glasses, and an hourglass hanging from his arm (Fig. 3). These coins' connection to mining and to silver is only represented in their material quality as silver coins. The ore specimen has been removed from the Wild Man's hand in favour of vanitas symbols. Julius inscribed his preferred motto on the coin: Aliis inserviendo consumor [I will be consumed, by serving others]. Again, placed on a coin, this inscription characterizes the nature of the Wild Man and of the coin at one and the same time. Just as it became the creature's new duty to serve the territory by providing natural riches, it was money that serves while being consumed. The 41 Frederick J. Stopp analysed the attribution of Wild Man to Heinrich the Younger in detail. One shortcoming of this very rich and compelling article is that the material and medial quality of money and the practice of minting is not acknowledged. Frederick J. Stopp, 'Henry the Younger of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Wild Man and Werwolf in Religious Polemics 1538-1544', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 33 (1970), 200-34. 42 For further reading on the conflict between Heinrich and Goslar, see Christoph Bartels, 'Die Stadt emphasis, thus, moved from treasure, represented by the Wild Man holding an ore specimen, to consumption represented by the creature holding a burning candle. His new function as servant was further indicated by the depiction of the Wild Man as a light bearer, which turns him into an essential guide through the dark underground workings but marks him also as a link to the world outside above ground: the world of commerce and trade. The connection of the Wild Man with mining, commerce, and trade is made even clearer by a new type of coin, the Julius Löser, or just Löser, issued between 1574 and 1588. 44 These coins were minted in different values (of 10, 9, 5, 4½, 4, 3, 2½ thaler). Numismatic literature from the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century discusses them widely. The eighteenth-century Philipp Julius Rehtmeyer (1678-1742), a priest and chronicler of Braunschweig, locates these Löser in the context of Julius' mercantilist economic thought: we read that every inhabitant of the duchy of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel had to buy them according to their provision and was obliged to store them. Once a year the possession of the coin had to be shown to the authorities. According to Rehtmeyer these coins were not minted as currency to be put into circulation as such, they rather had the specific function of saving or storing money. If the duke needed money, he could borrow these Löser, melt them down and produce currency. As soon as the shortage was resolved, new Löser were produced, which then were given back to the creditors. 45 No historians nor numismatists have been able to verify Rehtmeyer's claims. 46 However, a closer look at the monetary practices of the second half of the sixteenth century makes Rehtmeyer's interpretation seem problematic. The Julius-Löser seemed to be intended as currency. The golden Portugalöser or Portugaleser served as a model for Julius' Löser. 47 The Portugalöser were minted in Hamburg after 1560, based on the model of the Português -a hefty gold coin worth ten Cruzados, minted since 1499 with gold from Africa. 48 The Portugalöser were primarily intended as currency, particularly for the payment of larger sums such as those incurred in long-distance trade, and they were well known. In the seventeenth century they gradually lost their significance as currency and the term Löser came instead to describe medals and commemorative coins. 49 44 Leschhorn,Braunschweigische Münzen und Medaillen, 'Diese merckwürdige Münze in hat ein jeglicher Unterthan nach seinen Rang in grossern udn kleinern Werthe mit andern Gelde einlösen, stets behalten und verwahre, auch alle Jahr der Obrigkeit jedes Orts vorzeigen müssen: Die von geringen Vermögen haben solche Löser, welche zwey Thaler wert, die Wohlhabenden aber andere, welche drey, vier, fünf bis zehn Thlr. gegolten, eingelöst; und solcher gestalt hat man wissen können, wie viel Geld, welches ohne Zinsen Müßig gelegen, im ganzen Lande verhanden wäre, da denn im Nothfall der Landes-Herr solche Julius-Löser von den Unterthanen aus einem oder mehr Aemtern entlehnen, und andere gangbare Münze daraus schlagen können; wenn solches geschehen, und er sich damit fortgeholffen, hat er hernach die Löser wieder prägen, das davor versetzte einlösen, und denen Unterthanen wieder zustellen lassen. ' Julius Philipp Rehtmeyer, Braunschweig-Lüneburgische Chronica, Vol. ii (Braunschweig: Arnold Jacob Keiteln, 1722), 1012Kraschewski, Wirtschaftspolitik, 113-19. 47  Julius' effort in mining and commerce makes this interpretation seem to be rather plausible. Just as his father Heinrich the Younger had done, Julius regarded silver, copper, and lead mining as a major source of income for his state and even expanded his activities in this sector. The income from the mines and metalworks accounted for 39.6% of all revenue at the Wolfenbütteler chamber between 1579 and 1580. 50 Julius not only possessed the highest number of mining shares, he also invested in mining technology, processing manufactures and the expansion of the waterway transport network for the transportation of raw materials and the output from his mines. 51 The processing and manufacturing sites of Braunschweig and Lüneburg produced a huge variety of mining products, the so called Bergwaren (mainly lead, brass, iron, alabaster, and vitriol). 52 The latter were advertised splashily throughout the country and in major trading cities like Antwerp and Amsterdam. 53 In the years between 1572 and 1586, the duke sent a few dozen letters to the councils of the Hanseatic Cities and to several Central and Eastern European courts, praising the wealth of his country and listing his Bergwaren. 54 Accordingly, we have to contextualize these Löser coins within Julius' broader plans to transform his duchy into a leading centre of industry and trade.
As curious as the Löser's purpose is its design (Fig. 4). The obverse shows Julius' portrait in full armour holding a battle-axe with his right hand and in his left a sword. Four circles surround his portrait. The inner circle depicts the seven known planets visualized anthropomorphically, the outer circle shows the twelve zodiac symbols, followed by two inscribed circles: 'By Grace of God Duke Julius of Braunschweig and Lüneburg, God's provision must be given/ O Lord do not protect more than my body, soul, and honour'. 55 The reverse depicts the ducal coat of arms accompanied by two Wild Men, both holding a halberd, with the creature on the right additionally holding a candle, the figure on the left an imperial orb. Again, four circles surround the coat of arms, the inner circles show the seven planets and the twelve zodiac signs, the outer circles an inscription: 'New coin, minted in Heinrichstadt according to the Imperial currency ordinance [nach des Reichs Schrot und Korn] with name Julius of Brunsvick's Löser of 10 thaler's value.' 56 The inscription nach des Reichs Schrot und Korn gives assurance of the Löser's stability and reliability. Two Wild Men, the strong and reliable servants of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, protected this above ground silver deposit. The depiction of zodiac signs and the personification of the planets was a completely new design, not previously in evidence. 57 The planets especially relate to the alchemical view of the generation of minerals (or metallogenesis). As Warren Dym and John Norris have recently discussed, medieval and early modern natural philosophers, mining practitioners and metal workers adopted an organic conception of ores, according to which veins grew organically by means of astral influences, underwent a natural life cycle of generation and decay, and even regenerated years after depletion. 58 In the later sixteenth century, alchemical ideas were adopted in mining through the publication of the works of Paracelsus. 59 Duke Julius must have been well aware of this knowledge, since for him, alchemy had an important entrepreneurial and economic value. The secrets of nature and of art had long promised to be economically as well as politically useful. By hiring skilled assayers and alchemists, he tried to increase the productivity of the mines and the fertility of his lands. 60 The zodiac signs and planets on Julius' Löser kept the metal alive and in a sense fertile. These coins symbolized a repository of wealth 56  above ground, which is not simply stored in an inert and passive way, but is rather active and reproductive, in the way it is used in commerce and trade. This idea relates to broader political literature of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Vera Keller has compellingly analysed how political writers such as Botero, Bacon, Bornitz, and Bernegger used the metaphor of the mine above ground. The above ground mines 'were the mines of industry and commerce from which, via the complicated interactions of global supplies and demands, more silver could be extracted than from the direct mining of nature'. 61 Even though he was transferred from the aforementioned unruly mining landscapes to the world of commerce, the Wild Man's ambivalent, violent, and unpredictable nature did not disappear entirely. In fact, his sphere of action even grew wider: of significant economic importance here were the iron mines and the manufacturing industries. 62 Iron was a material that became prominently associated with the Wild Man during Julius' reign as well. Some of the most popular items of trade were cannonballs made of iron slag and iron artillery. 63 A huge gun barrel made of iron which bore the name Wilder Mann was stored in the arsenal of Wolfenbüttel and is now located in the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. Almost six metres in length, it is one of the longest sixteenth-century Hinterlader [breech-loader]  While Duke Heinrich's Wild Man thaler was both a symbol of ducal power and a manifestation of broader discourses about the relationship between natural wealth or natural riches and the production of value by 'artificial' means (with all this implies), Julius' Wild Man thaler relates to a process of domestication, wherein the Wild Man was fashioned as a servant, who exclusively carried out the wishes of the duke. The power of the Wild Man would crush all opposition. His incredible strength and his arcane knowledge were no longer represented as uncontrollable forces. Apart from the sovereign ruler's authoritarian claims and the way his power was represented, the world of commerce and trade, with which the Wild Man had also become associated, demonstrated a far more complex sphere. Trade was as tricky to control with iron and artillery just as much as with sophisticated Löser coins. The archival records reveal that Heinrich the Younger as well as Julius were constantly looking for foreign merchants and mining entrepreneurs with whom to cooperate, and continued to seek out wealthy investors. 65 The merchant Veit Wittich and his fellow investors from Augsburg for instance were the major shareholders of two pits, St Jakob and the Sachsen-Zeche, until 1581. 66 Therefore, even if the taming of the Wild Man is a claim made by the authorities, as they extended the state's administrative reach, we should be careful not to overestimate the sovereign's role here as a political one man show. 67  to predict, control, and to 'tame' than the Löser's iconography of economic fertility and material reproduction suggested. Compared to the expenditure incurred by advertisement, the sale of the Bergwaren was not at all as profitable as expected. In 1587 Julius even discussed lowering the production rates with his chief mining official Christoph Sander, because the store houses at Wolfenbüttel were full and no buyers seemed to be in sight. 68 After Julius' death in 1589 the Wild Man thaler continued to appear, and in 1600 it became a specific symbol of the newly founded mint in Zellerfeld. The Wild Man thus moved back from the ducal residence at Heinrichstadt to the mining region in the Upperharz, the place from where he originally came. In this new location, the Wild Man continued to become ever more 68 Henschke, Landesherrschaft und Bergbauwirtschaft, 320f. domesticated. The taming of the Wild Man had important consequences for the way local natural riches were perceived. He no longer symbolized the essential precariousness of prospecting for silver, but rather became increasingly fashioned as a warrantor for mineral wealth as well as a symbol for the constancy and stability of the mining business as it continued in the Harz region, and for the stability of the currency as well. On coins minted under the rule of Duke Friedrich Ulrich of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1591-1634 after 1613 in Zellerfeld, the Wild Man underwent a fashionable brush up and came to resemble a figure more akin to Hercules (Fig. 6). The thick coat he had formerly worn almost fully disappeared, a loincloth made of foliage modestly covered his genitals, his beard was well brushed and styled in a trendy shape, and his head was covered with a hood made of twigs. With his altogether honest visual appearance, the succeeding dukes promoted ideas of stability and reliability.
One example in particular represents a Wild Man Ausbeutetaler issued under Christian Ludwig of Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Celle (1622-1665) in 1663 and 1665 (Fig. 7). It shows a giant, muscular Wild Man standing over a busy mining scene. He is depicted holding a tree trunk, which resembles Hercules' club, in his right hand. The inscription represents Christian Ludwig's motto sincere et constanter [honest and constant]. These multiple thaler coins were intended as payment for the investors of the Harz mines. The major part of these shares from the Upper Harz mines were owned by the mining officials, who took management and ownership into their own hands just as the Dukes had done before them. Evidently, the officials were anything but neutral trustees. 69 The presence of the Hercules-like Wild Man on an Ausbeutetaler shows how the officials appropriated the visual rhetoric of the sovereign and adapted the Wild Man as a signifier of stability and constancy into an emblem for their mining business. CONCLUSION Far from being a purely negative force that had to be defeated, the Wild Man of the Harz Mountains was a useful resource, not only on the level of the state's (o)economy but also for the individuals who risked their lives in the mines and for those who dared to invest in their operation. In their daily actions and experiences, the government, as well as individuals such as sovereigns, mining officials, mint masters, investors, hewers, physicians, and others involved in the mining industry were confronted with the uncertain, dangerous, and risky nature of mining. They nevertheless challenged nature in multiple ways, such as finding technical solutions to solve problems of invading ground water, an insufficient air supply, or invented new assaying methods for processing poor ores. But they also challenged themselves, pushed against their own bodies and beliefs, by withstanding hard physical labour or accepting the lure of material desires or the greedy search for natural riches. These early modern actors, thus, tried to stabilize the ferocious, 69 Bartels, Vom frühneuzeitlichen Montangewerbe zur Bergbauindustrie, esp. 52-54. uninhibited, and untamed nature of the Wild Man by establishing a kind of resolve that can be traced through the development of administrative and financial structures, to the construction of shafts, the deployment of innovative technologies and on into the miner's body itself, with its values, emotions, and beliefs. But this robustness nevertheless relied upon a fragile stability, a stability that the Wild Man's ferocious, wild, and unchristian nature always threatened to tear down. This article has analysed practices and modes of resistance concerning the Wild Man's taming and his appropriation into the world of commerce and trade. This analytical perspective examined consolidation processes regarding financial mechanisms and administrative structures, by acknowledging the discursive powers that are inherent in symbolic forms and their affective operation and that are too often dismissed as thin or superficial ephemera within the greater debate.