Restrictions in Forest Use. 125 



which were not undeserved even until past the middle 

 of the nineteenth century, have become reversed; 

 the forest service being morally on as high a plane as 

 all the departments of German administrations. 



7. Forest Policy. 



During the first half of the century the old concep- 

 tion of Forsthoheit superior right of the princes to 

 supervise and interfere with private property 

 changed into the more modern conception of the 

 police function of the state, and, by 1850, after the 

 revolutionary period, the seignorage of the princes 

 had passed away. The issue of forest ordinances (the 

 last in 1840) was replaced by the enactment of forest 

 laws which, since the establishment of representative 

 government, has become a function of legislatures. 



The tendency to restrict the exercise of private 

 property rights had been assailed by the theories of 

 Laissez faire and the teachings of Adam Smith, and, 

 as a consequence, all the restrictive mandates of the 

 older forest ordinances had been weakened and had 

 more of less fallen into disuse. Especially the attempts 

 to influence prices and markets had nearly if not en- 

 tirely vanished during the first decade. Only for the 

 state forest, it was still thought desirable to predeter- 

 mine wood prices, or at least keep rates low, because 

 wood was a necessary material for the. industries. 

 This theory prevailed until, perhaps under the lead 

 of Hundeshagen (see above), the propriety of securing 

 the highest soil rent was recognized as the proper aim, 

 when the practice of selling wood at auction in order 

 to secure the best prices became the rule. 



