A Matter of the King’s Service: Supplying Ship-Timbers for the French Navy in the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

This article examines the policies and personnel that allowed France’s Old Regime monarchy to obtain huge supplies of naval timber from within the kingdom. In contrast to many other accounts, however, the main focus here is on the people who actually carried out this work (forestry officials, naval shipwrights, government contractors), specifically in south-western France. These agents were supposed to cooperate, but that did not always occur, and this article suggests some explanations. The demands of the central state provoked varied responses from woodland proprietors (the Church, rural communities, and private landholders). Their reactions are considered as well, since this “social history” approach allows us to appreciate that France’s success in building up its naval forces during the “age of sail” were not always welcomed by the king’s subjects.