The term “Comstock capitalism” describes new commercial, legal, and scientific conditions emergent in the silver mining industry of the early 1860s in western Nevada. On the Comstock, the first joint-stock mining companies in the American West were incorporated, and stockholders, “the speculative interest,” underwrote exceptional investments in large labor forces, powerful machines, cutting-edge engineering, and, most importantly, incessant litigation. In high-stakes court cases over mining rights, men of science, as expert witnesses, played central roles in the takeover of silver mining by big, well-financed companies. The development of Comstock capitalism essentially rested on the consolidation of scientific theory. Where once there had been numerous silver veins, geologists found a new object of nature—an immense single deposit called the Comstock Lode.

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康斯托克资本主义：法律、矿脉和科学

“康斯托克资本主义”一词描述了 1860 年代初期在内华达州西部的银矿开采业中出现的新的商业、法律和科学条件。在康斯托克，美国西部第一家股份制矿业公司成立，股东，“投机利益”，承销对大量劳动力、强大机器、尖端工程以及最重要的是不断诉讼的特殊投资. 在涉及采矿权的高风险法庭案件中，作为专家证人的科学家在大型、资金充足的公司收购银矿开采方面发挥了核心作用。康斯托克资本主义的发展基本上依赖于科学理论的巩固。曾有无数银脉的地方，