| In the ancient China, timber was widely used to make the transportation tools, farm implements and furniture, to build houses, bridges and irrigation works. It also took an important role in the regional trade. Because there were not enough local-produced timbers to meet the daily needs of its prosperous market towns and numerous populations, it had to import many timbers from other places in Jiangnan area. Qiantang River Basin was the nearest place of origin of timbers to Jiangnan area. Timbers were constantly transported to Jiangnan’s market for sale through the Great Canal in the management of the merchants of Huizhou, Hangzhou and Shaoxing. Wood production, sales markets, water transport network and merchants constituted the integrated timber trade system in Qiantang River Basin, and promoted the integration between the areas of core and edge in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River region.In this paper, I want to study the lumbering and its influence on the local society from Ming Dynasty to the Republic of China in Qiantang River Basin. The lumbering includes each link of planting, cutting, transportation and sales, and the social influence mainly focuses on the disputes between the timber merchants and local public. In the concrete arrangement, firstly I retrospect of the lumbering history in Qiantang River Basin, then analysis natural and social factors to support the sustainable development of lumbering. Secondly, I restore the origin of timber and transportation network in historical geography, from which we can find the market trends in the lumbering spatial distribution. Thirdly, I study the conflict and interaction between merchants and local society on some specific cases in the timber transportation and stacking process, conflict, interaction between wood and local society. From the investigation of the cases, we find the changes in local society in the background of commercialization, including the environmental changes and the changes of people’s social life and ideas. |
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