In the end, the Director consented—if only for the revenue the steel promised, and, perhaps more urgently, to prevent Hannover from reclaiming the autonomy its citizens had fought so hard to secure. Yet the matter was not so simple as erecting a factory and declaring the work begun.
The university was first obliged to negotiate with the proprietors of the Harz Mountains.
The Harz was a complex jigsaw of jurisdictions, its authority divided and often contested. Most significant among its holders was the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg—more commonly known as the Electorate of Hannover. In practical terms, this meant the mines belonged, at least nominally, to King George III of Great Britain.
