Due to its vast territory, increased exchanges between ethnic groups, and opening up to the outside world, the development of agriculture, handicrafts, commerce, and transportation has corresponding characteristics.
After Kublai Khan, the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, came to the throne, he established the Agriculture Department, an agency to manage agriculture, to guide and supervise agricultural production in various places, edit the "Agricultural and Mulberry Collection", promote advanced production technology, protect labor and Cultivated land, built water conservancy projects, etc., enabled the restoration and development of agricultural production in the early Yuan Dynasty. The technology of agricultural production also improved in the Yuan Dynasty. After the mid-Yuan Dynasty, the development of agricultural production showed stagnation and decline. The main handicraft industries in the Yuan Dynasty were: felt industry, silk weaving industry, cotton weaving industry, linen weaving industry, weapons industry, salt making industry and porcelain making industry. Its scale and product quality exceed those of the Song and Jin eras.
In the Yuan Dynasty, banknotes - banknotes - were used throughout the country. The unified national currency promoted the development of economic exchanges and commerce. The government adopts a patent monopoly policy on many domestic commodities, and nobles, officials and monasteries also engage in business activities relying on their privileges. The scale of overseas trade in the Yuan Dynasty exceeded that of previous generations, and the government established the Municipal Shipping Department to directly control it. There are many countries and regions that have trade relations with China. Chinese businessmen have visited as many as 97 coastal countries and regions in Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia, and East Africa. The routes with Goryeo and Japan were smooth, and the scale of trade was large. Land and foreign trade are mainly connected with Crimea and European countries through the Kipchak Khanate, and with Arab countries through the Ilkhanate. The development of domestic and foreign trade has promoted the prosperity of urban economy. The capital city is said to have a population of millions and is the political, economic and cultural center of the country.
The White Pagoda of Dashengshou Temple in Dadu (now the White Pagoda of Miaoying Temple in Beijing) was built in Dadu in the eighth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1271)
Yuanqing bouquets of lotus and curly grass
After the Yuan Dynasty destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, the country was unified and economic exchanges between the north and the south were further expanded. Most of the food and other materials needed by the north (mainly Dadu) were supplied by Jiangnan. Materials from the south of the Yangtze River mainly relied on canals to be transported northward, so Kublai Khan sometimes proposed reopening the canals and creating alternative sea transportation. The excavation of the canal and the opening up of maritime transportation played a major role in the development of commerce, the supply and prosperity of the metropolis, the smooth flow of north-south transportation, the expansion of official and private shipbuilding industries, and the improvement of navigation technology. Land transportation is also very developed. There are inns and express shops all over the country, which is conducive to the development of domestic transportation and the economic and cultural connections between various ethnic groups and regions in the country.