Forest management, naval need and legal-institutional conflict: the Hispanic monarchy and the Basque institutions during the Habsburgs

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze, from a legal and institutional perspective, the conflict between, on one hand, the requirements of the Habsburg Monarchy by taking advantage of Bizkaia’s and Gipuzkoa’s forests to supply wood to the Navy that preserved the extensive Hispanic territories. On the other hand, the needs of rural populations, managed by inherent rights mainly based on customs, which were sustained with the consumer goods that the trees provided them, and were defended against the royal commissioners for their local or provincial institutions.Published online: 25 November 2014

Keywords

• austrias
• marina
• montes
• vizcaya/bizkaia
• guipúzcoa/gipuzkoa