Timber and Forestry in Qing China: Sustaining the Market 

Praises:

This is a path‐breaking book that is both empirically rich and theoretically sophisticated. It challenges both our default narrative of uninterrupted environmental decline in the Chinese highlands and the common assumption that state‐directed “scientific forestry” was the only possible effective answer to early modern deforestation. Instead it shows how market‐based institutions devised by a variety of private actors in one particular area, combined with flexible state regulation, sustained for almost 200 years a vigorous timber sector which met the needs of large downstream markets, provided incentives to replant trees and protect vulnerable hillsides, and –at least to some extent – sustained the livelihoods of both indigenous and immigrant participants in timber production and trade.”

—Kenneth Pomeranz, University of Chicago, author of The Great Divergence

Meng Zhang has uncovered the existence of sustainable timber production in the Qing empire’s southwestern frontier region. Her analysis weaves together environmental sustainability through tree planting and economic sustainability through financial market mechanisms typically associated with modern economies, never anticipated to be developed in peripheral areas of an early modern empire. The network of institutions and the distribution logistics that enable a timber trade satisfying both state and social demands further inform the particular way Chinese political economy spanned what European political economy came to see as distinct public and private components. Beyond contributions to Chinese historical studies, her research offers a model to historians of other world regions for exploring the varied ways in which economic and environmental histories are entwined.

—R. Bin Wong, UCLA, author of China Transformed.

The narrative trajectory of the book blends a compelling story from varied ingredients while distilling a strong argument, well-flavored by salient literature, that will be savored by scholars of China. At the same time this book will enliven more general interest in the history of forestry, sustainable natural resource management, and the relative role of states and market institutions in land control, wood trade, and related environmental outcomes.

—K. Sivaramakrishnan, Yale University, author of Modern Forests: Statemaking and Environmental Change in Colonial Eastern India

Revises a major truism in Qing dynasty history, and reveals how China’s adaptation to the exhaustion of old-growth natural forest was in many ways more sophisticated than any early modern European contemporaries.

—David A. Bello, Washington and Lee University, author of Across Forest, Steppe, and Mountain: Environment, Identity, and Empire in Qing China's Borderlands

Combines rigorous empirical research with impeccable conceptual logic to construct an important argument for environmental, economic, and Late Imperial Chinese history.

—Stevan Harrell, University of Washington, author of An Ecological History of Modern China

中国古代的建筑以木制结构为主，然而很少有人去追问源源不断的木材供应来自何处，木材的生产、运输和贸易又是依靠怎样的制度安排加以维系。在这部开创性的著作里，张萌教授为我们再现了清代木材供应和长途贸易的丰富图景，更为关键的是分析了清代的林木产权和交易制度——例如可分割、可转让的林地股份、资产证券化以及牙行制度，进而解开了一个悖论式的经济学问题：林木再植明显存在生态外部性、数十年的生长周期等市场失灵问题，清代政府在几乎自由放任的情况下，依靠精致而复杂的市场制度保障了林木供应的可持续性。我相信本书将成为中国商业史领域的经典著作，对于我国当前农村土地产权制度的改革探索也富有启发意义。

—周黎安 Zhou Li'an, 北京大学经济与管理学部主任, 光华管理学院教授 (Peking University)

以明代中期政府取得「皇木」方式逐漸由徭役征派變成市場採買為主要歷史背景，本書分析十七世紀以後中國西南地區大量栽植人工林以及全國木材商業網絡、木材商業組織改良、木商資本累積的長時段過程，論證清代如何演化出一套「可持續市場的制度機制」，並藉以有效整合「激勵參與者、資源再生、市場參與、公平交易」的林業生態經濟。作者不僅善用定量與定性方法估算清代林業經濟的成長規模，更借鑑社會科學、應用生物學與生態學，區分「可持續性」為強與弱的兩層不同內涵，用以論證清代「以市場為導向的森林資源可持續性」以及林業經濟「長途商貿業務和信貸安排的可持續性」。作者還極富新義地考察清代商業化的「更新造林制度」如何起到「加強當地的水供應、土壤保謢和碳儲存」等生態保護作用，從而有別於清代同時期山區種植玉米等美洲作物導致水土流失與河道淤積等生態破壞現象。全書不只對清代林業生態系統以及木材市場經濟之間複雜互動關係做出細緻探究，也對伊懋可所謂中國經濟與生態關係呈現「三千年的不可持續增長」命題進行了商榷，確實是部令人擊節讚賞的好書。

—邱澎生 Ch'iu Pengsheng, 上海交通大學人文學院歷史系特聘教授 (Shanghai Jiaotong University)

Book reviews:

A focused study of a long neglected sector of the early modern Chinese economy... For the reader unfamiliar with the details of imperial Chinese political economy, this is a work that is attentive to what you need to know. For the specialist it is skilled in logical weaving together of the impact of a complex set of institutions and practices. This should encourage wide readership among comparative historians as well as China scholars.

—Madeleine Zelin, Journal of Chinese History (pdf)

Advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars of early capitalism, regional political economy, historical resource economics, and the convergence of ecology and economics (a new Oikonomics?) will gain much from a careful, critical, and comparative reading of this remarkable and challenging book.

—Chris Coggins, Environmental History (pdf)

Provokes a rethinking about the environmental impact of capitalism and the possibility of staking sustainability to profit... Zhang's work is at its most lively and innovative when tracking timber market players from below--cultivators, merchants, brokers, and trade associations--and their impact on the market.

—Faizah Zakaria, Technology and Culture (pdf)

An impressive and careful study of a subject unexplored in English. Her insights into the role of market forces in environmental management make a vital contribution to the filed of environmental history.

—Larissa Pitts, American Historical Review (pdf)

Provide vivid accounts of regenerative and productive forestry... problematize and extend [narratives of reckless exploitation] in a more comprehensive manner through careful interrogation of various primary sources... These original and fascinating new perspectives on forest history in China are highly recommended. 

—Jack Patrick Hayes, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (pdf)

Zhang's work is superlative... [T]his remarkable book belongs on the shelves and syllabi of any scholar interested in the economical and environmental history of early modern China.

—Matthew Lowenstein, Journal of Asian Studies (pdf)

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.

—New Books Network

At a time when the market has been seen as a main culprit for resource degeneration, Zhang’s study offers an important opportunity for us to reconsider the market–resource relationship. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in Chinese history, economic and environmental history, Chinese geography, resource management, sustainable forestry, market–environment relationships, and related topics.

—Hong Jiang, China Review International (pdf)

[O]ne of the most interesting books for understanding the Chinese system of timber trade during the Qing era. Zhang's book can be useful to us today because we are living in a time of deforestation of the Amazon, climate change, and problems with the actual economic system. The explanation provided by Zhang might be part of the solution for shaping humanity's common future.

—Javier Poveda Figueroa, H-Net (link)

Provides hints on the potential of historical practices to contribute to contemporary environmental issues.

—Başak Akgül, International Review of Social History (pdf)

相較於以往的木材貿易研究，本書貢獻體現於採用計量史學方法來推動山林產權議題的經濟史研究，著重勾勒了產權制度和王朝國家經紀制度在維持長程木材貿易的作用，從而能夠藉以深入理解經濟的制度基礎和社會文化基礎。同時，本書也針對經濟與社會關係以及商業組織的多種角色，為這兩方面議題提供了生動而精彩的對話空間。

—何薇 He Wei, 法制史研究 (provides a detailed summary and thoughtful review in Chinese; pdf)