Timber Circulation And Local Society In Qingshui River Valley During The Early Qing Period

This dissertation looks at the changes of government policy, the structure and operation of timber distribution and the relations between timber-trade development and social changes in the southeast region of Guizhou province in the early Qing period. The Qingshuiriver belongs to the water system of Yuan River and used to be an important connection between southeastern Guizhou and the Jiangnan region. The great change came when the GaituGuiliu (replacing native chieftains with regular officials) was put into force by Qing government. After the river was dredged in Qing Dynasty, the native minorities made their living by timber trade. Especially in the lower riversides, a very prosperous timber market was held in the early Qing period. The native merchants (Shanke) joining with another native agents (Zhujia) and keeping the Han chinese merchants from the outside (Shuike) off the upper reaches of Qingshui River. This market mechanism was called Dangjiang.In the core chapter, the author examines the distribution mechanism of timber in this area, using the historical records CaiyunHuangmuAndu [Archives on felling and transporting imperial timber], written by a lower bureaucrat who was in charge of the procurement in the years 1777 and 1781. The timber from this region was used for the construction of the palace in Beijing during the Qing period. Every year, a bureaucrat from Hunan province traveled to southeastern Guizhou to procure the timber. My conclusion is that the strength of market was one of the most important factors to bring this area into national economic networks and key motivations to accelerate the process to enter the ruling framework of central government. However, this system also brought a lot of negative effect on the region developing process.