ABSTRACT
Nef’s work left a profound mark and inspired a considerable literature, some of which rejected his main thesis. For example, George Hammersley’s detailed examination of the Crown woods in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries led to the conclusion that ‘the much-vaunted fuel shortage…was always a strictly local and limited phenomenon. The story gained ground by an extension of hard cases-those of London, Bristol and Northumberland for instance-to make bad generalizations’ (Hammersley 1957:159). Other criticisms were made by Flinn (1959b, 1978) and by Coleman (1977). Space does not allow an adequate summary of the many issues raised in this debate. In this chapter I shall concentrate on one important aspect-the performance of the British iron industry
in the seventeenth century. Between the 1630s and the 1680s, when there was a massive increase in the demand for iron, why did Britain’s iron output fail to respond? Within the limits set by the available statistical data (which are far from perfect), an attempt will be made to analyse the supply and demand shifts and the course of prices in the markets for timber, charcoal and iron.
