Mercantile capitalism, not population growth, drove forest decline after 1500.

Evidence

While population pressure had taken its toll on the forest ecosystem before the demographic collapse of the fourteenth century, after ecosystem recovery mercantile capitalism hastened the dramatic decline of timber resources in the sixteenth century. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 316

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Supports the ‘Grafting & Growth: On Trees as Infrastructure’ article’s claim that economic systems, not mere demand, determine forest fate — English timber depletion tracks capitalism, not headcount.
• XREF: connects to: Capitalism’s shift from renewable to mineral energy degraded forests at scale. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 323; Forests changed from common subsistence resources to private monetized assets via land reform. — Emil Sandström and Ann-Kristin Ekman and Karl-Johan Lindholm, Commoning in the periphery – The role…, 34; Capitalist profit control of resources harmed environmental quality versus peasant subsistence control. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 254 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Capitalism’s shift from renewable to mineral energy degraded forests at scale. #corroborates (0.85) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 323
• Capitalist profit control of resources harmed environmental quality versus peasant subsistence control. #corroborates (0.85) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 254
• Forests changed from common subsistence resources to private monetized assets via land reform. #expands (0.80) — Emil Sandström and Ann-Kristin Ekman and Karl-Johan Lindholm, Commoning in the periphery – The role…, 34
• European hegemony resulted from mercantile capitalism, not inherent cultural superiority #corroborates (0.75)
• Europeans experienced the plantation landscape’s disappearance as an environmental catastrophe #exemplifies (0.70) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 808