Technology and timber exports from the Gulf of Finland, 1661–1740

Abstract

Abstract Around 1760, British demand led to an unprecedented boom in massproduced timber exports from northern Europe, especially from the coastal ports of the southern Baltic and the Gulf of Finland. The demand was primarily for sawn timber, deals and battens, and hewn wood, spars and balks. It was not, as it had been earlier in this region, only for shipbuilding timber, Riga masts and spruce deals, nor was it for quality timber of oak used for shipbuilding and for barrels and pipes. The new demand was clearly for the same timber dimensions and tree species that had dominated Norwegian exports for centuries, viz. sawn goods or square timber of pine or spruce. The sawn timber came from the coastal area of the Gulf of Finland—Narva, St. Petersburg, Viborg and Fredrikshamn—while the balks came from the fast-growing Prussian timber port of Memel. With occasional interruptions, the boom can be said to have lasted until 1810 when an about-turn in British tariff policy in favour of Canada halted it. The post-war crisis and stagnation of the West European economy was a subsequent retarding factor. 1