Timber and Forestry in Qing China Sustaining the Market / Meng Zhang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zhang, Meng (History professor), author.

Series:

Culture, Place, and Nature

Culture, place, and nature studies in anthropology and environment

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Qing Dynasty (China).

Timber.

Sustainable development.

Deforestation.

Sustainable development--China--History--Qing dynasty, 1644-1912.

Deforestation--China--History--Qing dynasty, 1644-1912.

Timber--China--History--Qing dynasty, 1644-1912.

Lumber trade--China--History--Qing dynasty, 1644-1912.

Lumber trade.

China.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Seattle : University of Washington Press, [2021]

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

"In the Qing period (1644-1912), China's population tripled, and the flurry of new development generated unprecedented demand for timber. Standard environmental histories have often depicted this as an era of reckless deforestation, akin to the resource misuse that devastated European forests at the same time. This comprehensive new study shows that the reality was more complex: as old-growth forests were cut down, new economic arrangements emerged to develop renewable timber resources. Historian Meng Zhang traces the trade routes that connected population centers of the Lower Yangzi Delta to timber supplies on China's southwestern frontier. She documents innovative property rights systems and economic incentives that convinced landowners to invest years in growing trees. Delving into rare archives to reconstruct business histories, she considers both the formal legal mechanisms and the informal interactions that helped balance economic profit with environmental management. Of driving concern were questions of sustainability: How to maintain a reliable source of timber across decades and centuries? And how to sustain a business network across a thousand miles? This carefully constructed study makes a major contribution to Chinese economic and environmental history and to world-historical discourses on resource management, early modern commercialization, and sustainable development"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Front Cover

Series Page

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

List of Maps, Figures, and Tables

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Measures and Related Terminology

Chronology of Later Dynasties and Qing Reign Periods

Introduction

Chapter One. Obtaining Timber for the Court

Chapter Two. The Interregional Timber Market

Chapter Three. Sustaining the Resources

Chapter Four. Merchants, Brokers, and Market Dynamics

Chapter Five. Trade Associations, "Contributions," and Contract Enforcement

Epilogue

Appendix A: Estimation of Timber Tax and Trade Volume at Longjiang Guan

Appendix B: Estimation of Timber Tax at Jiujiang Guan

Appendix C: A Methodological Note on Land Contract Analysis

Chinese Character Glossary

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Series List

Back Cover.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780295748887

0295748885

9780295748863

0295748869

OCLC:

1224583183