Szczecin’s Maritime Timber Trade and Deliveries to Spain Between 1750 and 1760 on the Basis of Wochentlich-Stettinische Frag- und Anzeigungs- Nachrichten

From the perspective of the Port of Szczecin, Spain had never been a serious trade partner, which was influenced by many unfavourable factors. However, on both the Prussian and Spanish sides, attempts were made to establish closer trade contacts. This text aims to show that direct trade between Spain and Pomerania existed, even though it was not as repres- entative as the connection with Denmark, the Netherlands or England, but it supplements the knowledge about the geography of Szczecin’s trade contacts. To that end, timber trade was shown on the backdrop of Szczecin’s exchange with other ports connected to the main Pomeranian port with long-established trade ties. The text was based on press information published in the weekly Wochentlich-Stettinische Frag- und Anzeigungs-Nachrichten. The information gathered from the newspaper was confronted with the data contained in digit- ised Sound Dues registers. A comparative analysis of the data from those sources shows that in the years 1750–1760 Spain was not an important trade partner for Szczecin. Deliveries to the Spanish market in the years 1750–1760 accounted for a share that did not exceed 1% of all Szczecin’s export. This was due to the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War, which prevented the execution of the plan in the last two years of the analysed decade, and in the stronger commercial position of other Baltic ports, such as Gdańsk or Riga, among other things.