Timber produced from the southwestern regions in the Upper Yangzi has become increasingly important in meeting the bourgeoning consumption market along the eastern coast since the seventeenth century.This paper focuses on the forested mountains in southeastern Guizhou and southwestern Hunan provinces, an area occupied mainly by the Miao people and only incorporated into bureaucratic civil governance since the 1730s with the expansion of the Qing Empire.Timber trade flourished thanks to the states effort in dredging the Qingshui River,which transported high-quality Chinese firs produced in remote mountains to major water routes connecting to the Yangzi River, and the establishment of regular market intermediaries that facilitated trade between Miao sellers and Han Chinese itinerant merchants.Tree-planting and tenancy of mountain land became common practice by the 1750s in the mountainous areas close to the Lower Qingshui timber markets.