lo2 SALE OF WOOD 



the free action of (k'niaiul ami supply in the tiniber-niarket and 

 in auction-sales. The royalty for any assortment is determined 

 by taking: the nverafre price during a recent period for all similar 

 "wood sold within a certain district. The larger the volume of 

 wood sold in the open market, and the narrower the limits of time 

 and place within which the average price is fixed, the more neaidy 

 will the royalty correspond to the correct price of the assortment. 



Royalties were formerly fixed on quite different grounds from 

 these. Up to the end of last century it was considered advis- 

 able — and in some countries this is even still the case — that 

 the State, at any rate, should sell the produce of its forests at 

 moderate rates to the people. Royalties were therefore purposely 

 kept low, so much so, that they were considerably under current 

 local prices ; they therefore formed the minima margins of the 

 prices of forest produce. 



Royalties were fixed for a district by making benevolent 

 estimates of prices, after considering the area of the district 

 which was under forest, the economic condition of the popula- 

 tion, the cost of transport, and, finally, the different qualities of 

 the wood-assortments. It was, therefore, a mere stroke of luck 

 if the royalty was anywhere near the correct price of an assort- 

 ment. How little, indeed, this was the case, may be gathered 

 from the fact that royalties were often fixed for entire provinces, 

 or small States, and frequently remained unaltered for long 

 periods. If the forest ofiicials desired to counteract these bad 

 results to some extent, they had to propose an increase in the 

 royalties for certain special cases, and thus attempt to reform 

 an evil by imposing a greater one. This system did most 

 damage in Austria, where certain State and private forests 

 were assigned to mines of salt and other minerals, supplying 

 them with forest produce at prices which were for the most part 

 ludicrously low, often so much so as barely to cover the cost of 

 maintaining tlie forests. In this way, forests were deprived of 

 their proper revenues, and their maintenance and development 

 were unfairly hindered. 



The great harm done to forests by low wood-prices, tlie rising 

 value of all raw material, the constantly increasing demands on 

 State treasuries and the many inconveniences resulting from 

 the above antiquated ideas in the sale of forest produce, have. 



