Forest products export from the Baltic region to Western Europe grew to significant volumes during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. According to Sound Toll Records forest products were second in importance after grain shipped from the Baltic. Need for shipbuilding materials had especially supported this growth, but also the rise of textile manufacturing played an important role since ash acquired from wood was an essential medium in the dyeing process.
Towns located in the southern banks of the Baltic Sea were the most important loading ports for timber, tar, pitch, and ashes. The majority of these products was shipped to Western Europe on Dutch vessels, and Dutch merchants controlled the forest products export to other parts of Western Europe, too. Spain and Portugal were especially important customers, because the Iberian Peninsula had run out of suitable types of timber.
Already in the fifteenth century Danzig was the biggest exporter of forest products and it held this position until the beginning of the seventeenth century. However, in the 1620s Danzig's timber export collapsed, and the export of other forest products was also in decline.
Key words: timber trade, forest exploitation, forest history.
Correspondence: Jouko Tossavainen, Department of History, University of Jyväskylä, Seminaarinkatu 15, P.O. Box 35, FIN-40351 Jyväskylä, Finland
E-mail: jojuto@tukki.jyu.fi