This chapter surveys the history of the Chinese economy from the end of the Manchu dynasty to the establishment of the People's Republic. While the quantitative indicators do not show large changes during the republican era, China in 1949 was nevertheless different from China in 1912. Modern industrial, commercial and transport sector for the most part remained confined to the treaty ports. The census-registration of 1953-54-54 reported a population of 583 million for mainland China. In describing the Chinese economy in the closing years of the Ch'ing dynasty, it is noted that at least 549 Chinese-owned private and semiofficial manufacturing and mining enterprises using mechanical power were inaugurated between 1895 and 1913. China's economy in the republican era was overwhelmingly agricultural. Neither the 'distributionist' nor the 'technological' analysis of China's failure to industrialize before 1949, is by itself satisfactory. Poorly developed transport continued to be a major shortcoming of the Chinese economy throughout the republican period.