FISCAL, SOCIAL, AND SILVICULTURAL STATE FORESTRY IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND, c. 1600-1700

Abstract

In early modern England, wood supplies were fundamental to the existence of the state which relied on woodland both to generate revenue and to build naval capacity. This study examines how state forestry began to be practiced in England as woodland was increasingly treated as a national natural resource rather than the private property of the king. In charting the development of state forestry in England, this study evaluates the fiscal exploitation of the forest and crown methods for asserting its exclusive control over forest resources under the early Stuarts and considers the newfound material interest in woodland and corresponding silvicultural management during the Civil War, Interregnum, and Restoration. Ultimately, this study contends that a variety of early modern state-woodland interactions can be understood as aspects of a developing state forestry apparatus which substantially altered the usage and treatment of state-owned woodland in England.