194 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



extent in foreign hands, Hansards,^ "strangeris of Norraway and 

 others of the Eist partis";- but already in the early seventeenth 

 century the English were in the Baltic,^ and jealousy of the 

 foreign shipper was rising. ^ The rivalry of the Dutch and 

 English for the carrying trade was beginning, and timber was 

 of great consequence in that trade. Raleigh drew attention 

 to its importance: "The exceeding groves of woods are in the 

 east kingdomes, but the huge piles of wainscot, clapboard,, 

 firdeale, masts and timber is in the Low-Countreyes, where none 

 groweth, wherewith they serve themselves, and other parts, and 

 this Kingdome with those commodities; they have five or 

 six hundred great long ships continually using that trade, and 

 we none in that course.'"* The dependence of the Dutch upon 

 imported supplies was, however, used as a warning to England 

 by some advocates of planting, who were apprehensive of the 

 dangers which war might bring : •"' but experience was again.st 

 them. A blockade has never been easy, and a blockade of the 

 British Isles in the days of sailing ships was impossible. 

 Sir William Petty pointed out that in view of the convenience 

 of all parts of the country for sea-borne trade " the decay of 

 Timber in England is no very formidable thing, as the Rebuild- 

 ing of London, and of the Ships wasted by the Dutch War do 

 clearly manifest." '' And on the whole, history has proved him 

 right — because England wrested maritime supremacy from the 

 Dutch, and to our own days has held command of the sea. 



A word may be said on the legendary superiority of English 

 timber over foreign. From the sixteenth century onwards to 

 the disappearance of wooden warships, the Government en- 

 deavoured — although neither wisely nor with any settled plan — 

 to ensure a supply of native timber for the navy.*^ When 

 Samuel Pepys was at the Admiralty, timber " of East-Country- 

 Growth " had, however, been employed for some time for the 



^ Letters and Papers, xvi. 200, 306. 



^ Acts of Par It. of Scotland, iii. 82 ; cf. ibid. ii. 373, 499. 



^ Fynes Morrison, Itinerary, iii. 80. 



* Hist. MSS. Commn. IV. Rep., App. p. 314. 



^ Observations touching Trade and Commerce with the Hollander, and other 

 nations (1653), p. 26. 



*" Taylor, Common-Good, pp. 46-7. 



"^ Political Arithmetic, Economic Writings, p. 294. 



® Tudor and Stnart Proclamations, Nos. 514, 1589 ;. St. 19 and 20 Charles 

 II. c.viii.; and see references under p. 191. n. 7. 



