![]() There were two staple crops in Ancient China. They also were regularly called upon to undertake communal tasks such as constructing terraces and dykes, digging water channels, and as corvée labor, working on major public works such as city walls and royal palaces. The great majority of the people of Ancient China lived in farming villages, carrying out a host of tasks to grow their crops – sowing, ploughing, weeding, harvesting, storing – and keeping themselves fed, clothed and housed – milling and baking bread, fermenting wine, processing silk, spinning and cloth, and so on. However, agriculture remained at the root of Chinese civilization. Up to the late 20th century, the vast majority of the people gained their livelihood from farming. ![]() Out of this complex mix of elements would come some of the most important technological advances in world history. The increasingly productive farming economy of China provided the foundations for the development of one of the great civilizations of world history: trade and industry expanded, new social classes emerged, political institutions became more complex, culture grew in sophistication. The vast majority of Chinese families lived in small farming villages, of a dozen or so families. Ancient China‘s economy, like all economies at that time (which had advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage), were based on agriculture.
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