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SUMMARY:A Forest of Numbers: Comparing Statistics on Europe's Wood Economy
  (1860s–1910s) - Giacomo Bonan (University of Turin) 
DTSTART:20260310T170000Z
DTEND:20260310T180000Z
UID:TALK242701@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr AM Price
DESCRIPTION:Scholarship on the transformation of the European economy duri
 ng the so-called ‘first globalisation’ (ca. 1870-1914) has moved beyon
 d an outdated interpretation that regarded wood as an eminently pre-indust
 rial resource\, whose use declined due to the spread of new energy sources
  and raw materials. By contrast\, recent studies have shown that the techn
 ological innovations and market integration associated with industrialisat
 ion were driving a sharp increase in demand for wood. However\, understand
 ing how the different components of the wood economy evolved remains diffi
 cult\, not least because of the limitations of contemporary statistics. Th
 ese constraints were largely due to the material characteristics of wood\,
  which made it an anomalous commodity and hindered the adoption of standar
 dised\, internationally shared classification systems. Although the statis
 tics produced during this period provide unreliable information on the con
 dition of forests and the forest economy\, they nonetheless reveal a great
  deal about how the main actors involved in forest management and exploita
 tion perceived these issues. This seminar proposes a critical analysis of 
 forest statistics not only as historical sources\, but also as historiogra
 phical objects\, examining their production\, categories\, underlying inte
 rests\, and their use in public and political debate.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 3\, Cripps Court\, Magdalene College
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