This article recounts the worldwide search for timber undertaken by the Navy Board, the administrative body under the authority of the Admiralty responsible for the supply of naval stores and the construction and repair of ships during the Napoleonic Wars. The closure of the Baltic by France and its European allies is considered the main factor in making British North America a timber colony. Yet the process through which the forests of the Laurentian Plateau and the North Appalachians came to fuel the dockyards of England and Scotland is taken for granted. To acquire this commodity, through merchants, diplomats, and commissioned agents, the power of the British state reached globally, reshaped ecological relationships, and integrated new landscapes to the Imperial economy. Many alternatives to the Baltic were indeed considered and tentatively exploited. Only a mixture of contingency, political factors, and environmental constraints forced the Board to contract in Lower Canada and New Brunswick rather than in areas such as the Western Cape, the Brazilian coast, or Bombay's hinterland.

中文翻译：

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木材殖民地的形成：拿破仑时代的英属北美、海军委员会和全球资源开采

本文讲述了海军委员会在全球范围内寻找木材的情况，海军委员会是海军部下属的行政机构，负责在拿破仑战争期间供应海军物资以及建造和修理船只。法国及其欧洲盟友关闭波罗的海被认为是使英属北美成为木材殖民地的主要因素。然而，劳伦高原和北阿巴拉契亚山脉的森林为英格兰和苏格兰的造船厂提供燃料的过程被认为是理所当然的。为了通过商人、外交官和委托代理人获得这种商品，英国国家的权力遍及全球，重塑生态关系，并将新的景观融入帝国经济。许多波罗的海的替代品确实被考虑过并被暂时利用。只是偶然性、政治因素和环境限制的综合作用迫使董事会在下加拿大和新不伦瑞克省而不是在西开普省、巴西海岸或孟买腹地等地区签约。