En el siglo , el bucanero francés Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin (1646-1717) registró el uso de la caoba o del cedro en la Hispaniola para la fabricación de canoas: "Los indios hacen estas canoas sin el uso de ningún instrumento de hierro, se valen solo de la quema de los árboles en la parte inferior cerca de la raíz, y después manejan el fuego con tanta habilidad que no se quema nada más de lo que desean... ".[19].
La madera fue uno de los primeros materiales que llamó la atención de los europeos al inicio de la colonización española en América. Una cruz en la catedral de Santo Domingo, que lleva la fecha de 1514, se dice que es de caoba, y Felipe II de España al parecer fue quien decidió utilizar esta madera para la carpintería interior del Monasterio de El Escorial, iniciado en 1584.[20] Sin embargo, la caoba estaba reservada principalmente para la construcción de barcos, y fue declarada un monopolio real en La Habana en 1622. Por lo tanto, muy poca de la caoba que crecía en el territorio controlado por los españoles fue exportada hacia Europa.
Después de que los franceses establecieran una colonia en Santo Domingo (actualmente Haití), parte de la caoba existente en la isla probablemente encontró su camino a Francia, donde los carpinteros de las ciudades portuarias de Saint-Malo, Nantes, La Rochelle y Burdeos utilizaron esta madera de forma restringida hacia 1700.[21] En las islas controladas por los ingleses, especialmente Jamaica y las Bahamas, la caoba era abundante, pero no se exportó hasta después de 1700.
18th century
While the mahogany trade from Spanish and French territories in America remained at a minimum for most of the century, this was not true for the islands under British control. In 1721 the British Parliament eliminated import duties to Great Britain on all timber from British possessions in America.[22] This immediately stimulated the trade in West Indian timber, including the most important of all: mahogany. Mahogany imports into England (excluding Scotland, whose imports were recorded separately) reached 525 tons in 1740, 3,688 tons in 1750, and more than 30,000 tons in 1788, the busiest year of trade in the century.[23]
At the same time, the Act of 1721 had the effect of substantially increasing exports of mahogany from the West Indies to the British North American colonies. Although initially considered a joinery wood, mahogany quickly became the wood of choice for high-quality furniture makers, both in the British Isles and the 13 colonies of North America.
Until the 1760s, more than 90 percent of the mahogany imported to Britain came from Jamaica.[24] Some of this material was re-exported to continental Europe, but the majority was used by British furniture makers. Quantities of Jamaican mahogany were also shipped to the North American colonies, but the majority of the wood used in American furniture came from the Bahamas.[25] This material was sometimes called Providence lumber, according to the name of the islands' main port, but was more often called wood or maderah, which was the name used in the Bahamas for mahogany.[26].
Apart from Jamaica and the Bahamas, all British-controlled islands exported mahogany at some point, but in small quantities. The third most important source was Río Negro and the areas adjacent to Mosquitia, from where considerable quantities of mahogany were shipped from the 1740s onwards. This wood was known as "Roatán mahogany" (after the island of the same name), which was the main offshore supply base for British settlers in the area.
At the end of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), the mahogany trade began to change significantly. During the occupation of Havana by British forces between August 1762 and July 1763, large quantities of Cuban mahogany or Havanna were shipped to Great Britain, and after the city was returned to Spain in 1763, small quantities continued to be exported from Cuba, especially to the ports on the north coast of Jamaica, from where it was transported to Great Britain.[27] However, this mahogany was considered inferior to the variety of Jamaica, and trade continued sporadically until the 2nd century.
Another new variety on the market was "Spanish mahogany", also known as Santo Domingo mahogany. This trade was the result of the Free Ports Act of 1766, which opened Kingston and other Jamaican ports to foreign ships for the first time. The main objective was to encourage imports of cotton from French plantations in Saint-Domingue, but significant quantities of high-quality mahogany were also shipped to Britain, where they entered the market in the late 1760s.
In terms of quantity, the most significant novelty was the Honduran mahogany, also called in English "Baywood" (after the Bay of Honduras where it came from). British settlers were active in southern Yucatan with this trade from the beginning of the century, despite opposition from the Spanish, who claimed sovereignty over all of Central America.
Their main occupation was cutting logwood, used to make a red dye that was in high demand in Europe. The center of its activity and the main export point was Belize. Under Article XVII of the Treaty of Paris "Treaty of Paris (1763)") (1763), British cutters first gained the right to cut dyewood in Yucatán unmolested, within agreed limits. Such was the enthusiasm of the cutters, that in a few years they saturated the European market, and the price of logwood collapsed.
However, the price of mahogany remained high after the war, so cutters returned to felling mahogany. The first mahogany from Honduras arrived in Kingston, Jamaica, in November 1763, and the first shipments arrived in Britain the following year.[29].
By the 1790s most of Jamaica's viable mahogany reserves had been logged, and the market was divided between two main sources or types of mahogany: Honduran mahogany, which was relatively cheap and abundant, but rarely of the best quality; and Spanish mahogany, the wood chosen for the highest quality work.
Data is lacking, but it is likely that the newly independent United States received a good proportion of its mahogany from Cuba at that time. In the last quarter of the century, mahogany began to be used more widely in France;[30] as they had an ample supply of high-quality wood from Saint Domingue. The rest of Europe, where this wood became increasingly fashionable, most of it was purchased in Great Britain.[31].
Recent history
The French Revolution of 1789 and the wars that followed radically changed the mahogany trade, mainly due to the progressive decline of the French and Spanish colonial empires, allowing British traders to access areas previously closed to them. Saint-Domingue became the independent republic of Haiti, and from 1808, Saint-Domingue and Cuba were opened to British shipping for the first time.
From the 1820s, mahogany from all these areas was introduced to Europe and North America, with the main portion bound for Britain. In Central America, British loggers moved northwest toward southern Mexico and Guatemala. Other areas of Central America located to the south also began to be exploited, until reaching Panama.
The most important development was the beginning of large-scale logging in Mexico since the 1860s. Most of the mahogany was cut in the province of Tabasco and was exported through a series of ports in the Gulf of Campeche, from Vera Cruz to the east of Campeche and Sisal. Peru and Brazil.[31].
The American mahogany trade probably peaked in the last quarter of the century. Figures are not available for all countries, but Great Britain alone imported more than 80,000 tons in 1875.[33] This figure was never reached again. From the 1880s, African mahogany (Khaya spp.), a related genus, began to be exported in increasing quantities from West Africa, and by the turn of the century it dominated the market.
In 1907, the total of mahogany from all sources imported into Europe was 159,830 tons, of which 121,743 tons came from West Africa.[34] Already by this time, mahogany from Cuba, Haiti, and other West Indian sources had become increasingly difficult to obtain in commercial sizes, and by the end of the century mahogany from Central and even South America was heading toward a similar situation. In 1975 S. humilis was introduced into Appendix II of CITES, followed by S. mahagony in 1992. The most abundant species, S. macrophylla, was listed in Appendix III in 1995 and moved to Appendix II in 2003.