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Antonio Barrera, John T. Wing. Roots of Empire: Forests and State Power in Early Modern Spain, c.1500–1750., The American Historical Review, Volume 123, Issue 5, December 2018, Pages 1752–1753, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhy355
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In the late fifteenth century, the Spanish crown’s role in protecting forests changed from an arbiter, balancing the interests of local municipalities, artisans, and herders who used forest resources, to a forest manager, protecting the crown’s interest in shipbuilding. After the Spanish expansion in the New World, the crown became another actor competing for forest resources together with local municipalities, artisans, herders, and commoners. In Roots of Empire, John T. Wing tells this early modern story of transformation from a crown balancing the forestry interests of early modern communities to a crown protecting its shipbuilding interests in forest resources. The crown forestry interests promoted the development of a statewide forest administration and legislation, as well as long-term conservation efforts in Spain and the colonies. Wing argues that supervision and regulation of forests in Spain began in the sixteenth century, with the crown’s assertion of control over northern forests for navy shipbuilding, and continued in the mid-eighteenth century, with the attempt to implement a national forest code (3).
