ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses farm implements and draft animals, water control construction, and natural and chemical fertilizers. Underlying the discussion of capital inputs is an analysis of the dependence of the inputs on population growth and an increasing agricultural labor force. The opportunities for investment in traditional water-control activities in the north were particularly limited unless carried out in conjunction with modern large-scale projects. An analysis of both north and south China suggests that returns on investment in water control were not very high by the twentieth century except in a few more recently settled provinces. The opportunities for investment in traditional water-control activities in the north were particularly limited unless carried out in conjunction with modern large-scale projects. And these modern large-scale projects themselves were very expensive in relation to the returns that could be expected from them and in relation to the overall investment capacity of the state.
