Baltic Timber Trade

The seaborne trade in northern-European softwood, ship masts, deals, pitch, tar, and flax from Baltic ports to western Europe, dominant from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Riga, Memel, and Saint Petersburg shipped Scandinavian and Russian pine and fir; mast timber and naval stores were strategic cargoes for the Royal Navy. The trade peaked in the sailing-ship era, then shifted to Canada and the White Sea after the Napoleonic Wars raised Baltic prices and Britain cut preferential timber duties in 1842 and 1860.