1558 English law against tree-felling for charcoal

For the HMS Victory, Lord Nelson's flagship, it took 2,100 tons of oak. It took a whole forest to build Victory. So the two uses of oak were in conflict. And now a third industry was glassmaking. To make glass you also need charcoal because you can't get all those impurities in the glass or you end up with a mess. In 1558 a law was passed forbidding the felling of trees to make coal for the burning of iron. But as with all politics, they excluded the forests of Kent and Sussex, where it really would do any good. It's like saying you're forbidden to grow corn anywhere but Iowa. Good old politicians even back then.

Tom's central historical case for the "revolution of necessity." The 1558 law forbade felling trees for iron-making but exempted the Weald of Kent — Tom's example of how "even the lobbyists worked back in 1558." Extended in §4.p8 with the 1581 act on Thames-river and coastal trees, and §4.p9 with the 1615 royal proclamation lamenting the loss of shipbuilding-grade oak.

So the two other uses of oak — building ships and making iron — were in conflict. And now a third industry added to the demands, and it's called glassmaking. In 1558 a law was passed forbidding the felling of trees to make holes for the burning of iron. But as good politicians, the Weald of Kent and Sussex was exempted, so you couldn't cut trees for making iron by royal decree — except where they were making iron. So even the lobbyists worked back in 1558, okay.

So another transportation one, which I kind of like, goes back 400, 500 years, to England. This is a PBS series about metallurgy. It's about twenty hours of lectures on metallurgy. It talks about the first energy crisis in England. The energy crisis in England in the 1500s was they were running out of trees for energy. You would burn wood, you would take the wood, you'd pyrolyze it to make charcoal. How do you make charcoal? Anybody know how to make charcoal? Yes, exactly. You pile up the logs, you cover it with dirt, let a little bit of air in, not much, and you light it underneath the dirt and suffocate it. It burns off all the volatiles, gets all the smoke coming off, and when you're all done, you stop the air going in, put the fire out, let it cool down, take the dirt away, and you've got charcoal. Charcoal is a very clean fuel after you've burned away all the other stuff. But in any case, they were running out of fuel in England.

Opening case for the "first energy crisis" arc — a 1558 law forbidding tree-felling to make charcoal, exempting the Weald due to iron-industry lobbying, with a 24-fold price increase in wood by 1581 leading to a further 1581 Act.

So in 1558 a law was passed forbidding the felling of trees to make coal for the burning of iron, but the Weald of Kent and Sussex was excepted — just like politicians haven't changed. They pass a law and say you can't do something, but all the lobbyists come in. The lobbying of the iron industry got them to exempt the region where it was critical. So they're still tearing down the trees in the Weald, which was the middle of Britain. Then by 1581, just 23 years later, the shortage of wood was so great — first of all, the price had risen from a penny to two shillings. How much increase is that? What's two shillings in pence? 24 pence — 12 pence to a shilling. So a 24-fold increase in the price of wood. Just like the energy crisis we had with the Arab oil embargo.