China is essentially an agricultural country, and the farms are held in much the same way as in the United States, but the holdings are so small that agricultural machinery is not required for their cultivation.
Wheat, millet, and pease are grown throughout the lowlands wherever they can be cultivated. The cultivation of rice is confined mainly to the coast lowlands. The amount of food-stuffs produced, however, is scarcely sufficient for home consumption; indeed, a considerable amount is imported, and the imports year by year are increasing. This is due not so much to the density of population as to want of means of transportation of the soil products from inland regions. It is often much cheaper to import food-stuffs from abroad than to transport them, even from an adjoining province.
Tea is extensively cultivated, and China exports nearly one-half of the world's product; the total amount produced is considerably more than half. Most of this goes to Great Britain and Canada. Raw silk is an important product, and the mulberry-tree is extensively grown. Cotton is one of the most general crops in the southern part of the empire, especially along the lower Yangtze. It is a garden-crop, however, and nearly all of it is consumed.
The mineral wealth is very great, and with proper management will make China one of the most productive and powerful countries in the world. Coal is found in every one of the provinces, and the city of Peking is supplied with an excellent quality of anthracite from the Fang-shan mines, only a few miles distant. It is thought that the coal-fields are the most extensive in the world. Iron ore of excellent quality is abundant, and in several localities, notably in the province of Shansi, the two are near each other.
Foreign capitalists are seeking to develop these resources in several localities. The Germans have obtained mining concessions in Shantung peninsula, and these involve the iron ore and coal occurring there. The Peking syndicate, a London company, has also obtained a coal-mining concession in Shansi.
For the greater part the manufactures are home industries.[79] Until recently most of the cotton cloth was made by means of cottage looms, and the beautiful silk brocades which are not surpassed anywhere else in the world are still made in this manner. Porcelain-making is one of the oldest industries, and to this day the wares sold in Europe and America are known as "china." Straw carpet, or matting, and fans for export are also important exports.
The mill system of manufacture is rapidly gaining ground, however, and foreign companies find it economical to carry the yarn made in India from American cotton into China to be made into cloth. In the vicinity of Shanghai alone there are nearly three hundred thousand spindles. This phase of the industry is due largely to the factor of cheap labor; the Chinese skilled laborer is intelligent; he does not object to a sixteen-hour working-day at wages varying from five to twenty cents.