Slovenia (Gorz+Krain) is producing GOLD!?

[unmerged(288807)]

I will admit it right now, I'm no expert when it comes to Slovenia and its economy, but where exactly is that gold? When was it produced? And is it still there . As the game presents it, it seems that Slovenia is a one big gold mine. Can someone give me more background information on that, especially if you are more familiar with the region then I am.

 

[Chronicler]

I will admit it right now, I'm no expert when it comes to Slovenia and its economy, but where exactly is that gold? When was it produced? And is it still there . As the game presents it, it seems that Slovenia is a one big gold mine. Can someone give me more background information on that, especially if you are more familiar with the region then I am.

I wouldn't look to hard on trade goods produced.

I seriously doubt Scandinavia mostly just produced fur. >_>.

 

[grommile]

It's to represent the gold-mining operations that happened to the east of Aquileia / south of Klagenfurt.

 

[Faerun]

sadly from my limited knowlegde of Scandinavian history but until the 1600s or so they mostly only exported fur(atleast in finland nothing else was exported then furs until the 1900s) but after the english cut all their trees down they started to export wood materials aswell...

 

[rubert]

Tar was major export for both Sweden and Finland but since there is no tar as a trade goods fur is probably closest substitute.

 

[grommile]

Tar and wood are both filed under "Naval Supplies" along with hemp/jute/sisal (for rope).

 

[Hiram_Maxim]

I don't know if gold was ever mined in Slovenia at all. Perhaps a lot of rich provinces were placed in that area so Austria can be the major power it was in the era.

 

[bestbrian]

Dacian gold mines?

 

[grommile]

Dacian gold mines?

Wrong side of the Balkans.

There were gold fields near Klagenfurt, which is very close to the modern Austrian-Slovenian border.

 

[unmerged(288807)]

It's to represent the gold-mining operations that happened to the east of Aquileia / south of Klagenfurt.

Can I have a source which confirms that assumption? The location you are naming in the comment is basically Slovenia, thus are you suggesting that gold was produced in Slovenia or not?

 

[grommile]

Can I have a source which confirms that assumption? The location you are naming in the comment is basically Slovenia, thus are you suggesting that gold was produced in Slovenia or not?

I'm going by the Wikipedia entry, which has a citation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquileia

 

[unmerged(288807)]

I'm going by the Wikipedia entry, which has a citation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquileia

"The discovery of the gold fields near the modern Klagenfurt in 130 BC[1] brought it into notice, and it soon became a place of importance, not only owing to its strategic position, but as a centre of trade, especially in agricultural products and viticulture. It also had, in later times at least, considerable brickfields."

Some things I don't understand here:
A) The goldmine would be over 1500 years old at game start, wasn't it exhausted by that time?
B) Why doesn't the province west from Gorz produce gold? Slovenia clearly didn't produce any gold.
C) Did the gold mine produce really so much gold that it justifies 4 gold provinces AROUND the province which i question if they did even produce them?
D) My historical atlas of the economy of Europe in the 15th century doesn't show a gold mine in the area whatsoever.
E) Victoria an empire under the sun also claims that Slovenia did produce precious materials (And not the Venice region) which it clearly didn't.

 

[grommile]

I'm carefully not saying that the quantity of gold being produced there in-game is sensible. Just that there was gold mining there once.

 

[unmerged(9643)]

Shhhh. stop complaining will ya'll. My venetian doge loves those goldmines

 

[StephenT]

As far as I can tell, the only major gold mine in Europe in this period was at Kremnica in Slovakia (in those days, part of the Kingdom of Hungary). Most of that gold found its way south-west through Görz and Krain to Venice and northern Italy, where it was minted into florins and ducats and then circulated back out to the rest of Europe as currency. So I suppose if you'd asked a Venetian "where does gold come from?" he would have vaguely pointed to the provinces to the north-east of Venice.

Remember, though, that "gold" in the game probably represents silver and gems, not just gold itself.

 

[Trin Tragula]

Keep in mind that most gold provinces in EU3 actually produced silver.

I have also been wondering about those gold provinces though. I've been taught that in the late 1300's - 1400s the only reliable sources of silver in all of Europe were the silver mines at Srebrenica and Novo Brdo (in Bosnia and Serbia). This was a very big thing back then as many European silver mines had to close down or reduce production during the 1300's-1500's (Schwaz in the EU3 province of Tyrol is one of them, the silver mine at Kreminica, Slovakia another and Rammelsberg, Saxony another) leading to a large shortage of bullion (and giving Venice a virtual monopoly on making silver coins until the Ottomans conquered Bosnia and Serbia).
I'm by no means well read on the subject but from the overview's that I've been given in general I've never heard of the Slovenian gold/silver mines either. I'm kind of thinking they're atleast partially there to boost Austria/Venice as a balance measure.
A quick google search on Slovenian mining history does seem to indicate that other rare metals have been mined there though ( http://www.mineprofs.org/info/industry/SOMP-03-Industry-Slovenia-Bajzelj.pdf ) which could account for some of the mines?

Another gold province that seem dubious to me (though I haven't checked up on them) is the gold province in Georgia.

On the other hand: The most important sources of gold and silver in the Ottoman empire was supposedly southern Egypt, northern Anatolia (Gümüshane ) and Macedonia (Sidrekapsi). None of those have gold as a resource in the game despite feeding a quite large empire's need for coins.

 

[Moltke]

Shhhh. stop complaining will ya'll. My venetian doge loves those goldmines

As does my Byzantine Emperor.

 

[unmerged(217050)]

Tar was major export for both Sweden and Finland but since there is no tar as a trade goods fur is probably closest substitute.

A major export from the far north during early middle ages was ivory - not from elephants but from walruses. Most of the older ivory found in northern Europe is walrus.

 

[unmerged(288807)]

As far as I can tell, the only major gold mine in Europe in this period was at Kremnica in Slovakia (in those days, part of the Kingdom of Hungary). Most of that gold found its way south-west through Görz and Krain to Venice and northern Italy, where it was minted into florins and ducats and then circulated back out to the rest of Europe as currency. So I suppose if you'd asked a Venetian "where does gold come from?" he would have vaguely pointed to the provinces to the north-east of Venice.

My historical atlas suggests only 2 locations where gold was produced in Europe at that time. Slovakia as you pointed out and Galitzia in Spain. Silver was produced in numerous places, but the nearest location to Slovenia was Venetia which did do so. Other resources you are suggesting here were not produced in Slovenia.

boost Austria/Venice as a balance measure.

Another problem here is that historically Austria already owned at-least Krain if not also Gorz at that time which it also doesn't do on the game start.

If i had to assign any resource to Slovenia it would be either wine/naval/iron.

 

[grommile]

Another problem here is that historically Austria already owned at-least Krain if not also Gorz at that time which it also doesn't do on the game start

Looking up Gorizia on Wikipedia (I know, I know...), it appears that Gorizia/Görz (a) didn't belong to Austria in 1399 (b) didn't belong to the Bishop of Aquileia either.