Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
agration city authorities from the late
Middle Ages on were trying to oblige house owners to use brick-built
In the light of this high risk of a con
re places
and to have their roofs covered by stone tiles or slates which however were con-
siderably more expensive than wooden tiles. Considerations of economy and safety
were at constant battle in the regulation of how cities were to be built, not only in
respect to
re but also to other hazards.
Providing suf
cient quantities of fuel and construction wood had been relatively
easy in the high Middle Ages when cities were comparatively small in terms of
population and forests fairly close by. But the long growth period between 1000
and 1300 meant that the agricultural area had massively expanded at the expense of
forests. In the 14th century the area covered by forests in Central Europe had been
smaller than in the 20th century. Pushing back the
'
forest frontier
'
also had eco-
logical consequences such as increasing erosion on sloping
elds and a higher rate
of
ooding because the forest could not retain as much rain water as before. Forests
in the vicinity of cities also had changed their character: due to grazing and repeated
logging of trees in short intervals the forests were loosened up and frequently turned
into a mixture of pasture and forest with a predominance of medium growth trees.
36
The
re-wood needs of towns were quite substantial. A town of 10,000
inhabitants needed up to 50 cartloads of fuel-wood every day.
37
By the late 13th
century municipal authorities started to realize the potential dangers of overusing
the forests in the proximity of the city. Nuremberg, one of the most dynamic and
prosperous German cities in that period, developed a forest protection policy for the
Imperial forests which Nuremberg had managed to gain control over and tried to
protect these forests against excessive use. Elements of such protective policies
could be the banning of collieries or saw mills. Since the prime-growth forests of
oaks and beeches, species which naturally dominate forests in that region, were
almost totally depleted, the city of Nuremberg decided to replant the forests with
faster growing pine trees. The technology of extracting pine seeds and replanting
forests, developed for this protection policy, became a lucrative business venture; a
company dealing in seed of trees was highly successfully after 1400 selling its
products from Nuremberg all over Europe.
38
Nuremberg was in a privileged position, having these Imperial forests in its
immediate vicinity, but for many other cities there were no suf
cient forests close
by, over which they could exercise control. Providing enough
re-wood and timber
for construction thus was one of the permanent challenges for urban authorities up
to the period of industrialization.
39
The problem was less one of absolute shortage
of wood but rather of affordable and ef
cient transport. For pre-industrial transport
costs of overland haulage by cart were about 10 times as high as transport by sea
36
Schubert, Alltag, 43
45; K
ΓΌ
ster, Geschichte.
-
37
Clark, European Cities, 141.
38
Sporhan and von Stromer (
1969
).
39
Freytag and Piereth (
2002
).
