Building timber in ’s-Hertogenbosch

Abstract

Around the mid-sixteenth century the organization of the timber trade seems to have developed to such an extent that it was mainly pretreated types of timber that could be offered to the buyers. These consisted of local timber as well as of timber that had been supplied from a longer distance. The timber supplied chiefly came from the German Mid-Rhine region and from the basin of the Maas and its tributaries in present-day South Belgium and Luxemburg.

The greater part of the local timber came from the ‘Meierij van 's-Hertogenbosch’ (bailiwick of 's-Hertogenbosch). The origin of part of the pretreated timber bought around the middle and the latter half of the sixteenth century can no longer be traced. In general, little time was allowed to pass between chopping the wood and treating it. This too, points to a well-developed structure of the timber trade in this period. Local timber production at various rural estates of the 's-Hertogenbosch institutions was part of this structure.