La provincia marítima de Segura (1733-1836)poder naval, explotación forestal y resistencia popular en la España del Antiguo Régimen

Resumen

Between 1733 and 1836, the mountains of Segura maintained a special legal regime firstly, as a result of the establishment of the Wood Bureau under the Ministry of Finance and then, from 1748 onwards, as a result of the Navy exploitation and administration of a space whose wooded surface stretched from the north-eastern limits of the ancient kingdom of Jaen to the northeast of the kingdom of Murcia (in the eighteenth century). During this period the mountains of Segura provided the civil and naval works with wood. Convents, churches and cathedrals like those of Cordoba and Jaen were built by using wood from Segura. It was also used for the construction of the New Populations of Sierra Morena and for the supply of the arsenals of La Carraca, Cartagena and Ferrol. But the question is: was the contribution of the Segura mountains important, decisive or anecdotal to the naval construction of the Spanish Navy of the Enlightenment ? To date, the investigations on the Maritime Province of Segura do not make the relevance of its wood in shipbuilding clear. For this reason, this thesis aims to analyze the relationship of the woods of Segura and the Navy of the Enlightenment in order to discover the true impact exerted by the pines salgareños in the shipbuilding of the eighteenth century and the first decades of the nineteenth. Also, this study seeks to clarify the footprint and scope of the effects caused by the jurisdiction of Marina in the mountains of Segura in order to discover the definite degree of responsibility in an alleged forest devastation. Ultimately, this work aims to incorporate, as it deserves, the history of the Maritime Province of Segura to the debates of the naval historiography of the Hispanic world.