Segers-Glocke, Christiane [Hrsg.]; Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege [Hrsg.]; Institut für Denkmalpflege [Hrsg.]; Balck, Friedrich [Bearb.]: Arbeitshefte zur Denkmalpflege in Niedersachsen: Aspects of mining and smelting in the Upper Harz Mountains (up to the 13th/14th century) - in the early times of a developing European culture and economy (St. Katharinen: Scripta Mercaturae Verl., Heft 22.2000)

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Only quite late, in 1351, did the monastery purchase another urban estate at
Kelbrass. Tax exemptions had also been obtained in Sangerhausen and Almun-
disleybin65 66. There is no information about direct trade of the monastery Wal-
kenried with towns, other Cistercian abbeys, or about the commercial transactions
concluded through the urban estates. One may therefore follow Thomas Beddies
assumption that the monastery did not act as an independent trade organisation,
but that it sold its metal and agricultural products through merchants in places
where agencies had been established, particularly through the long distances
traders of Goslar (Beddies 1996, 58. Wiswe 1954, 128).
Summary
The archaeological work of the past years has established that the rich mineral
resources of the Harz and its foreland have been utilised since the 3rd century AD.
Under the rule of the Ottone dynasty, the region around the Harz developed into
one of the most important and influential political and economic centres of the
empire. Not least may this be attributed to the abundant deposits of ores rich in
silver, lead and copper and their utilisation.
The royal mints, such as the one in Gittelde, produced a large number of
silver coins, among others the well-known Otto-Adelheid pfennig, a popular
means of payment in northern and eastern countries. The copper produced in the
smelters in Goslar, the Harz and its foreland was processed only to a small extent
in the region. Via landroutes and waterways, it reached various parts of the
empire, even Flanders and France. Friesian traders operating via Bremen and
Hamburg sold copper from Goslar even to the English market.
The monastery of Walkenried had a substantial share in the mining activities
in the Harz. The networks through which the metals produced by the monastery
were distributed remain unclear. Up to today it has not been possible to establish
the ways and means by which the trade was organised through the urban estates
operated by the abbey.

65 Grotefend 1855 198 Nr. 923. For other activities of the Walkenried monks in their
urban estates comp. Wiswe 1954, 126-129.
66 Grotefend 1852, 319 Nr. 494. In 1286 Markgraf Friedrich of Brandenburg and
Landsberg issues these customs privileges. His successor Markgraf Otto renews the
customs exemption in 1296 but only for the village Almensleve. It has not been possible to
clarify unambiguously which village is meant by this reference.