Baltic Timber Research Articles

The Baltic Timber Trade and the Port of Riga: Economic Empowerment of Middlemen and New Entrepreneurs in Imperial Russia’s Western Provinces (1860s to 1914)

The Baltic Timber Trade and the Port of Riga: Economic Empowerment of Middlemen and New Entrepreneurs in Imperial Russia’s Western Provinces (1860s to 1914)

Timber trade in 17th-century Europe: different wood sources for artworks of Flemish painters

The former Spanish Netherlands experienced a period of social, cultural and economic prosperity in the seventeenth century, with Antwerp as its most important commercial and artistic centre. The era’s vibrant art scene, once pivotal culturally, economically, and diplomatically, now offers invaluable insights for scientific studies on art, trade, and craftsmanship. In a study on 294 panel paintings by or related to two famous Flemish artists, Jacques Jordaens (1593–1678) and Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), we applied classical art historical techniques, archival research, dendrochronology, and the study of panel maker’s and guild marks on the painting’s reverse to gain insights into the precise time of tree felling, the geographical provenance of the wood, and the panel makers patronised by the painters. The majority of the paintings (~ 80%), which were subjected to a dendrochronological analysis, could be dated and the results accorded well with the concomitant art historical assessment on authorship. Besides an active and well-known Baltic timber trade which provided over 71% of all the planks examined, straight-grained oak trees were also sourced from western Central Europe (20%). Interestingly, planks from the Baltic and the Ardennes region (France/Belgium) were used together in three different paintings, likely cut apart from larger panels. Employing a multidisciplinary approach to a comprehensive painting collection by individual painters provides not only a new tool to determine a painting’s date and authorship but also allows for a better understanding of the contemporary timber trade and associated craftsmanship.

A fifteenth-century shipwreck with Scandinavian features from Bremen. Interpreting the Beluga ship in the context of late medieval clinker construction in northwestern Europe

While most of this volume’s contributions trace Hanseatic influences throughout the North Atlantic, this paper examines a possible counter-influence in the shape of a medieval shipwreck discovered in Bremen in 2007, the construction of which is reminiscent of the Scandinavian shipbuilding tradition. With its radially cleft planks, inlaid wool caulking and clinkerfastenings, the wreck displays a number of features that point typologically to a vernacular Scandinavian origin. However, the planks fall into two groups outside of Scandinavia: high quality wainscot planks cut in the Baltic region in the course of the fourteenth century, and a group of locally cut timber — arguably for repairs — dating from the second quarter of the fifteenth century. This period coincides with a peak of Baltic timber export, especially wainscot for shipbuilders. Hence, the wreck is discussed within the wider context of clinker-built wrecks from this period in general and wrecks built of Baltic oak in particular.

A note in defence of Bang and Korst’s Sound Toll Tables

This research note presents a defence of the Sound Toll Tables (STT) published by Nina Ellinger Bang and Knud Korst. It is argued that the nature of the information available in the STT with respect to Baltic timber products has been misunderstood by historians. It is shown that it is possible to study the export of individual timber products from the Baltic from 1669 to 1783 on the basis of the STT. The note also demonstrates that the STT can be employed to examine individual ships and their cargoes in a very limited number of cases.

A method for estimating the volume of Baltic timber products exported through the Sound and its application to Portugal, 1669–1815

ABSTRACTIn this paper, I propose a method for estimating the volume of Baltic timber products exported through the Danish Sound, the strait separating the North Sea from the Baltic, during the early modern period. This method is based on the toll levied on the ships passing through the Sound. The main source used in this study is Sound Toll Registers Online. With the expansion of long-distance maritime trade during the early modern period, the Baltic played an important role by supplying naval stores (timber, pitch, tar, etc.) to the Western and Southern European nations. Until now exports of Baltic timber products have been analysed in terms of either the number of pieces or their weight. Both these approaches fail to shed light on the size (width, thickness, length) of timber products. On the other hand, the estimates presented in this article provide a clear picture about the size, hence the volume of the various timber products.

A methodology for estimating the volume of Baltic timber to Spain using the Sound Toll Registers: 1670–1806

The Sound Toll Registers Online project has opened a trove of information for historians, but calculating the actual volume of the trade it represents remains a challenge. Attempts have been made for products that were measured in weight or volume, but timber products were usually recorded by the number of pieces in a ship’s cargo. Different timber products varied greatly in size, so the amount of pieces is not useful for determining the volume of timber. Here I propose an approach for estimating the volume of Baltic timber trade using Spain as a case study. Such an estimate can be made by dividing distinct products and assigning them predictable dimensions. First, the process of converting the amount of timber pieces into volume is discussed. I then discuss the possibilities and problems with estimating tonnage. The article concludes with a discussion of the problems and limitations of this methodology.

The Norwegian and Baltic Timber Trade to Britain 1780–1835 and its Interconnections

The article closely examines the development of the trade in timber between Norway and the Baltic region with Britain in the period 1780–1830. It looks also at the scale of the trade and its role in the economic development of the countries involved, as well as how it became a global trade. Moreover, it discusses the balance of power between what is commonly understood as centres and peripheries at the time.

The Fate of Louise:, A Maine-built ‘down-easter’ at Grytviken Harbor, South Georgia Island

Located in a tiny harbour of Cumberland Bay, South Georgia Island is one of the last remaining examples of a Maine-built ‘down-easter’. The barque, burnt to the waterline with one of her steel masts lying haphazardly across her remains, is what is left of the Louise. While not much remains now, Louise was one of the first vessels involved in commercial whaling in the Antarctic, but her history prior to that venture was noteworthy. She participated in the American cotton trade, survived numerous trans-Atlantic crossings and difficult Cape Horn passages, suffered a near-fatal and far-reaching mid-channel collision, toiled for years in the Baltic timber trade and witnessed a South American naval war. All this before she was selected for her South Georgia Island commercial whaling adventure, but it is the latter that makes Louise a special vessel, worthy of record and some form of historic preservation. This article relates her colourful history and makes a case that she should be duly recognized and possibly preserved for her role in the establishment of commercial whaling in the Antarctic. It has however, already been recommended that her construction and history be recorded, an achievable prospect.

Provenancing Baltic timber from art historical objects: success and limitations

During the Middle Ages northern Belgium and The Netherlands were gradually deforested. A steadily rising demand for quality timber obliged merchants to look for new timber sources. From the 13th century onwards, large volumes of timber were imported from surrounding regions and, despite the remote supply area, merchants of the Hanseatic League managed to organize a huge timber trade from towns around the Baltic Sea. Trees from forests along the Vistula River seem to have been exported via Gdansk, first to Bruges and later to Antwerp. At their final destination the imported wood assortments were highly appreciated for shipbuilding and construction purposes, but also by woodcarvers and famous painters. Over the last decade dendrochronologists have established a dense network of historical site chronologies for northern and central Poland. These site chronologies are supposed to reflect local growth conditions and may allow the identification of the provenance of the wood of many art historical objects made out of Baltic timber. Tree-ring patterns of panel paintings and sculptures, mainly from the 14th–16th centuries, were measured and compared to this data set of site chronologies. An evaluation of the accuracy of sourcing medieval Baltic timbers using standard correlation techniques was made. The identification of provenance enriches historical information on logging activity and timber trade around the Baltic Sea during the Middle Ages.

Baltic timber in Western Europe – an exciting dendrochronological question

Summary During the Middle Ages and early modern times timber became one of the most important commercial products. Vast quantities were transported from the ports of the Eastern Baltic Sea to Western Europe and used among other things as the panels for paintings. A growing number of very local master chronologies constructed in Poland for oak (Quercus spp.) increases the possibility to localize its origin. Using methods of so-called dendroprovenancing, timbers from Bialowieza Forest in Eastern Poland, for example, were detected in a Scottish castle. However, the question of Baltic timber in historic objects of Western Europe still remains an exiting challenge.

Centro de deportes Bell, en Perth - Gran Bretaña

After detailed research on the statics and cost of the project, it was decided to roof over the building with a dome, whose structural part consists of laminated timber. This dome has 18 full ribs, joined at the top by a circular member and at the bottom by a concrete tie beam. The ribs are each 36 m long, and were made with Baltic timber boards, and are transversally stabilised with mild steel bars. In this function the bars are aided by concentric joists, distanced 1.60 m from each other.

The Trade of the United Kingdom with Europe

ONE of the most striking features revealed by a study of the trade statistics of the United Kingdom is the importance of the trade with Europe, particularly with the most neighbouring countries. So little is this trade emphasized to-day that it seems surprising at first; yet if the historical development of trade be borne in mind, this fact is quite naturally explained, for the modern trade is but the normal, though modified, continuation of what was, at one time, the only commercial activity of the country. Apart from the small, though highly valuable, overland traffic from the East, all the commodities of trade were of European or Mediterranean origin until the sixteenth century. most important changes in English trade since earliest times have been in the nature of the commodities, rather than in the direction of the traffic, for even during the later Mediaeval period English exports were still mainly of raw materials. Some of the import traffic has continued throughout history right to the modern period, such as the trade in French wines, Baltic timber, and Spanish iron-ore. tin-mining of Cornwall attracted traders from the Mediterranean, and probably from Scandinavia too, at a very early date, whilst copper, lead, and gold (mined in Cornwall and Wicklow) were also important at various periods, such as during the Roman occupation, which has its commercial as well as its military aspects, when there was also a considerable export of corn to other parts of the Empire. In the centuries which follow there was an intermittent though often considerable export of corn, and by the tenth century there are references to a thriving export of wool and to an import of iron-ore from Spain. There were three major raw material exports of the Mediaeval period: tin, coal, and wool, with cloth as a fourth export, though this was only partially manufactured, the dyeing and shearing being done after export. From various sources of evidence, including the lists contained in the 'Libelle of Englyshe Polycye,' I written in I436, probably by Adam de Moleyns, we can see that, though many and diverse, they are almost exclusively of European origin. The geographical area covered by English trade ... was co-extensive with the whole of North Western and Western ... most ancient and most active channel led along a short sea route to the Low Countries, England's nearest continental neighbours, and the commercial hub of Europe. 2 tin export, controlled by Venetians and mainly directed to the Italian pewter trade, revived in the fourteenth century with the passing of the Stannary Laws. A considerable trade in coal had already developed between Newcastle and the Low Countries. But most flourishing of all was the export of wool, which having no European superior was in great demand especially in the Low Countries and in Lombardy, which was usually reached by sea through the Straits of Marrock (or Gibraltar). All the leading towns

Parthenogenesis in the Mollusc Paludestrina Jenkinsi

Parthenogenesis in the Mollusc <i>Paludestrina Jenkinsi</i>