| Description |
1 online resource (xxi, 255 pages) : illustrations, maps |
| Series |
Culture, place, and nature : studies in anthropology and environment |
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Culture, place, and nature.
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| Contents |
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 |
| 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 |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on July 21, 2021) |
| Subject |
Lumber trade -- China -- History -- Qing dynasty, 1644-1912
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Timber -- China -- History -- Qing dynasty, 1644-1912
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Deforestation -- China -- History -- Qing dynasty, 1644-1912
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Sustainable development -- China -- History -- Qing dynasty, 1644-1912
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HISTORY -- Asia -- China.
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Lumber trade
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Deforestation
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Qing Dynasty (China)
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Sustainable development
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Timber
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China
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| Genre/Form |
History
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| LC no. |
2020051269 |
| ISBN |
9780295748887 |
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0295748885 |
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