2 - The Anatomy of the Crisis

Summary

During the first half of the eighteenth century Denmark experienced an ecological crisis. Problems piled up in the form of forest devastation, sand drift, floods, reduced fertilizing power, and cattle plague.

The forests were beginning to disappear. Around 1600, 20–25 percent of the country was still covered by forest. Since then the situation had deteriorated in most districts, most dramatically in West and North Jutland, less so in other parts of the country. All in all, by 1750 only 8–10 percent of the country was still covered with forest.

Wood, the most important raw material and source of energy, was fundamental to the economy of the time. It was used as fuel in households and in all kinds of industries, such as saltworks, iron foundries, and brickyards. Timber was required for building ships and houses and, furthermore, was used in large quantities throughout society for the most varied of purposes, including, for example, for fencing in agriculture. Pressure on resources was so great that instead of drawing only on growth in the forests, inroads also were made into forest capital. Observers could see the day approaching when society would grind to a standstill for lack of timber. Furthermore, hunting, which in Frederik II's day was still an important supplementary source of meat, disappeared with the forests; by the eighteenth century it was insignificant.