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Protecting the Public Interest: Land Agents vs. Loggers on the Eastern Frontier, 1820–1840

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2021

Abstract

America's progression from a frontier society to a settled society took more than three hundred years. During that time, Americans had to give up their view of the resources of the public domain as “free goods” and accept the idea of public compensation for appropriation of those resources for private gain. This attitudinal change took place first on the public lands of Maine and laid the groundwork for the wood-products industry in the United States.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2002. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.

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References

Bibliography of Works Cited

Books

Banks, Ronald F. Maine Becomes a State. Middletown, Conn., 1970.Google Scholar
Coolidge, Philip T. History of the Maine Woods. Bangor, Maine, 1963.Google Scholar
Defebaugh, James. History of the Lumber Industry of America. 2 vols. Chicago, 1907.Google Scholar
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Stigler, Joseph. “The Private Uses of Public Interests: Incentives and Institutions.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 12 (Spring 1998): 322.Google Scholar
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Maine State Archives, assorted categories of documents for the years 1820–1840, Augusta.Google Scholar
Massachusetts State Archives, “Eastern Lands,” Boston.Google Scholar
Public Acts of the State of Maine. (Portland, 1824, 1828, 1831; Augusta, 1835).Google Scholar
Banks, Ronald F. Maine Becomes a State. Middletown, Conn., 1970.Google Scholar
Coolidge, Philip T. History of the Maine Woods. Bangor, Maine, 1963.Google Scholar
Defebaugh, James. History of the Lumber Industry of America. 2 vols. Chicago, 1907.Google Scholar
Gates, Paul W. History of Public Land Law Development. Washington D.C., 1968.Google Scholar
Handlin, Oscar, and Mary, Handlin. Commonwealth: A Study of the Role of Government in the American Economy: Massachusetts, 1774–1861. Cambridge, Mass., 1969.Google Scholar
Judd, Richard W. Common Lands, Common People: The Origin of Conservation in Northern New England. Cambridge, Mass., 1997.Google Scholar
Rivard, Paul E. Maine Sawmills: A History. Augusta, Maine, 1990.Google Scholar
Roy, William G. Socializing Capital: The Rise of the Large Industrial Corporation in America. Princeton, N.J., 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Alan. Liberty Men and Great Proprietors: The Revolutionary Settlement on the Maine Frontier, 1760–1820. Chapel Hill, N.C., 1990.Google Scholar
Thoreau, Henry D. The Maine Woods, 1864; New York, 1961.Google Scholar
Williams, Michael. Americans and Their Forests: A Historical Geography. Cambridge, U.K., 1989.Google Scholar
Williamson, William. The History of the State of Maine. Hallowell, Maine, 1832.Google Scholar
Wood, Richard G. A History of Lumbering in Maine, 1820–1861. Orono, Maine, 1935.Google Scholar
Ball, John J., and Schaefer, Peter R.. “Case No. 1: One Hundred Years of Forest Management,” Journal of Forestry 98 (Jan. 2000): 410.Google Scholar
Gordon, Nancy M.The Economic Uses of Massachusetts Forests.” In Stepping Back to Look Forward: A History of the Massachusetts Forest, ed. Foster, Charles H. W.. Petersham, Mass., 1998, pp. 67100.Google Scholar
Kane, Lucile. “Federal Protection of Timber in the Upper Great Lakes States.” In The Public Lands: Studies in the History of the Public Domain, ed. Carstensen, Vernon. Madison, Wisc., 1978, pp. 439–47.Google Scholar
‘Report of the Land Agent of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, laid before the Legislature, January 10th, 1844,’ by Coffin, George W.,” North American Review 58, no. 123 (1844): 299335.Google Scholar
Schepps, Lee. “Maine’s Public Lots: The Emergence of a Public Trust.Maine Law Review 26 (1974): 217–72.Google Scholar
Smith, David C.Maine and Its Public Domain—Land Disposal on the Northeastern Frontier.” In A History of Maine: A Collection of Readings on the History of Maine, 1600–1970, ed.Banks, Ronald F.. Dubuque, Iowa, 1969, pp. 191–98.Google Scholar
Smith, Sarah. “US Imposes Tariff on Canadian Softwood Lumber.” Northern Woodlands 8 (Winter 2001): 1516.Google Scholar
Society of American Foresters. “US Imposes Additional Tariffs on Canadian Softwood Lumber Imports.” Forestry Source 6 (Dec. 2001): 1, 3.Google Scholar
Stigler, Joseph. “The Private Uses of Public Interests: Incentives and Institutions.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 12 (Spring 1998): 322.Google Scholar
Yonce, Frederick J.Lumbering and the Public Timberlands in Washington: The Eraof Disposal.” Journal of Forest History 22 (Jan. 1978): 417.Google Scholar
Maine State Archives, assorted categories of documents for the years 1820–1840, Augusta.Google Scholar
Massachusetts State Archives, “Eastern Lands,” Boston.Google Scholar
Public Acts of the State of Maine. (Portland, 1824, 1828, 1831; Augusta, 1835).Google Scholar