EN
Paper evaluates the conditions that affect the functioning of the timber market and its role in the development of forestry and timber industry during the ninety−year−history of the State Forests. Four periods were distinguished, which, according to the authors, correspond to the key stages of development of the Polish State: the interwar period (1918−1938), the period of the Second World War (1939−1945), the post−war period (1946−1989) and the period after the change of the political system in Poland (1990−2008). Data concerning both forestry and the timber industry in these periods were collected, processed and compared to the general conditions of functioning of the Polish state.