Tigers, Rice, Silk, and Silt: Environment and Economy in Late Imperial South China

by Robert Marks

• ISBN13: 9780521591775
• ISBN10: 0521591775
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-02-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Challenging the conventional wisdom of Western environmental historians, this book examines the correlations between economic and environmental changes in the southern imperial Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi (a region historically known as Lingnan, "South of the Mountains") from 1400 to 1850. Marks discusses the impact of population growth on land use patterns, the agro-ecology, and deforestation; the commercialization of agriculture and its implications; the impact of climatic change on agriculture; and the ways in which the human population responded to environmental challenges.

Table of Contents

List of Maps, Figures, and Tables	vii
Dynasties, Qing Dynasty Emperors' Reign Dates, and Weights and Measures	xi
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	1	(15)
``Firs and Pines a Hundred Spans Round'': The Natural Environment of Lingnan	16	(37)
``All Deeply Forested and Wild Places Are Not Malarious'': Human Settlement and Ecological Change in Lingnan, 2--1400 CE	53	(31)
``Agriculture Is the Foundation'': Economic Recovery and Development of Lingnan during the Ming Dynasty, 1368--1644	84	(50)
``All the People Have Fled'': War and the Environment in the Mid-Seventeenth-Century Crisis, 1644--83	134	(29)
``Rich Households Compete to Build Ships'': Overseas Trade and Economic Recovery	163	(32)
``It Never Use to Snow'': Climatic Change and Agricultural Productivity	195	(31)
``There Is Only a Certain Amount of Grain Produced'': Granaries and the Role of the State in the Food Supply System	226	(23)
``Trade in Rice Is Brisk'': Market Integration and the Environment	249	(28)
``Population Increases Daily, but the Land Does Not'': Land Clearance in the Eighteenth Century	277	(32)
``People Said that Extinction Was Not Possible'': The Ecological Consequences of Land Clearance	309	(24)
Conclusion	333	(13)
Bibliography	346	(25)
Index	371