Financing Market-Oriented Reforestation: Securitization of Timberlands and Shareholding Practices in Southwest China, 1750–1900

Timber produced in southwest China, especially Guizhou and Hunan provinces, became increasingly important in meeting the bourgeoning demand in the Lower Yangzi Delta beginning in the seventeenth century.1 The process accelerated after the strengthening of civil administration in areas dominated by the Miao ethnic group in the early eighteenth century. The development of the timber industry in western Hunan and southeastern Guizhou was facilitated by improved water transportation, which connected this region directly to the Yangzi River system and promoted economic exchange between the natural resources of the southwest and the handicraft production centers in the east. The Chen Guan Customs Station, sitting on the Yuan River in Chenzhou prefecture, Hunan, levied transit taxes on the timber exported from this