 Already by the 18th century, agriculture could no longer claim to be the only, nor even the most important, income earner in the municipality, for it was then that in Steinbach, as in so many nearby places, too, that exploitation of the underlying coal seams began.These are part of the "Breitenbacher Flöz" ("Flöz" means “seam” or “lode”).Several collieries sprang up in the municipal area.