The strategic forest: The procurement of naval timber in England and France (1660–1697)

This study compares the strategies deployed by France and England between 1660 and 1697 to procure the timbers they needed for their warships. It does so through the specific lens of their respective forestry policies. This forestry-based, comparative approach underscores the strategic importance of early modern forestry politics as a little-explored root cause of the two kingdoms' divergent trajectories as maritime powers in the eighteenth century. This approach led to a counterintuitive outcome. England's dearth of homegrown coniferous forests — the prime providers of mast material — and its half-hearted intervention in domestic forestry compare at first glance unfavourably with France's forestal abundance and the forceful forestry reforms of Louis XIV's main minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, launched with naval needs in mind. The scheme's initial success consolidated a belief in France's potential for naval timber autarky. At the same time, it precluded a more determined pursuit of alternative options to procure its Marine with the crucial mast materials. On the other hand, Colbert's refurbished forestry apparatus boded well for supporting the timber needs of land armies. By contrast, late seventeenth-century England had early on diversified provenances for its masting timber, including Scandinavia, the Baltic and its American colonies, enabling the island kingdom to meet the heightened procurement challenges of the next century with confidence.