Natural Resources in Early Modern Economies of Knowledge

This volume investigates the epistemological dimension and the societal embedment of early-modern resources policies. It especially addresses the knowledge economy of two resource groups, water and extracted minerals, in their cultural contexts. The enquiry into the practical dimension implies that special attention is paid to labor activities such as mining, fishing and engineering; while the enquiry into the cognitive dimension concerns the codification and transmission of knowledge about terrestrial and aquatic resources, both vernacular and scientific. The authors of the chapters of this volume provide a comprehensive overview of the knowledge layers that underpinned the material and immaterial economy of early modernity in fields such as natural history, proto-geology, metallurgy, alchemy, early hydrology, ichthyology, tidal theories, natural philosophy and cosmology. They address the multi-layered episteme of resource-related knowledge from the sixteenth to the late eighteenth century, and argue for the inter-relatedness of social organization, practices (including technology uses), and theoretical knowledge. The contributions also point out the ecological roots and consequences of economic-epistemological activities and the shifting conceptualization of the natural resources that were exploited and valued.