STANDISH, Arthur.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

New directions of experience to the commons complaint One of four contemporaneous 1613 editions, without established priority, of "one of the first treatises to be published in this country entirely devoted to forestry" (Henrey). It is uncommon in any state; ESTC and WorldCat locate copies of this particular edition at two UK institutions (NLS and Rothamsted, the latter this copy, deaccessioned in 2018; not in the BL) and four in the US (LoC, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Huntington, Yale).Following the Midlands revolt of 1607, the agricultural reformer Arthur Standish (fl. 1552-1615) set out to look "for measures to reduce discontent among the common people... [by undertaking] a four-year journey through the kingdom in search of answers. The resulting pamphlet, The Commons Complaint (1611), was personally approved by James I" (ODNB), and linked the revolts to a number of agrarian causes, noting in particular the effect of timber scarcity on the use of alternative fuel sources, which negatively impacted crop yields and food production. Standish advised that landowners undertake an aggressive programme of reforestation in response, to counter the scarcity of an essential resource.The publication of The Commons Complaint "signals a significant cultural watershed" (McRae, p. 135). "While it was a commonplace to consider fuel to have a similitude with food, both as a basic necessity and as a natural commodity, Standish argued for a causal, even ecological relationship. While o

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