ABSTRACT
Perhaps the chief reason for Szechuen's independent attitude throughout history lay in the ability of the province to sustain itself. The soil was unbelievably rich and fertile, and there was almost no crop that would not flourish. Sugar, tobacco, and many important herbs and native drugs, as well as the more common foodstuffs, grew in these fields. Great salt wells, together with groves of tung oil, insect wax, and lacquer trees, brought in rich revenue from the outside world.
