Common Forest, Private Timber: Managing the Commons in the Italian Alps

Abstract

Abstract The two key stakeholders in the commercial exploitation of the common woodlands in the eastern Italian Alps from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century were the mountain communities, which had ownership or right of use of the woodlands, and the timber merchants, who had the capital and skills to transform those woodlands into valuable commodities. A long-term perspective on the business of cutting, transporting, and marketing timber reveals the networks, strategic relationships, and complex socioeconomic conditions that emerged from the collaboration of local populations and outside interests in the timber trade for their mutual benefit.