The mineral resources of the Prussian Rhine province, coupled with its favourable situation and the facilities of transit af forded by its great waterway, have made it the most important manufacturing district in Germany. The industry is mainly con centrated round two chief centres, Aix-la-Chapelle and Dussel dorf (with the valley of the Wupper), while there are naturally few manufactures in the hilly districts of the south or the marshy flats of the north. The largest iron and steel works are at Essen, Oberhausen, Duisburg, Dusseldorf and Cologne, while cutlery and other small metallic wares are extensively made at Solingen, Remscheid and Aix-la-Chapelle. The cloth of Aix-la-Chapelle and the silk of Crefeld form important articles of export. The chief industries of Elberfeld-Barmen and the valley of the Wupper are cotton-weaving, calico-printing and the manufacture of turkey red and other dyes. Glass is manufactured in the Saar district and beetroot sugar near Cologne. Though the Rhineland is par excellence the country of the vine, beer is largely produced; distilleries are also numerous, and large quantities of sparkling Moselle are made at Coblenz. The imports consist mainly of raw material for working up in the factories of the district, while the principal exports are coal, fruit, wine, dyes, cloth, silk and other manufactured articles of various descriptions.
The population of the Rhine province in 1933 was 7,623,063 ex cluding the Saar District, till Mar. 1 of that year under adminis tration of the League of Nations and containing 830,00o souls. The great bulk of the population is of Teutonic stock, and about a quarter of a million are of Flemish blood. The province con tains a greater number of large towns than any other province in Prussia and more than half the population is industrial and com mercial. There are universities at Bonn (founded 1786 and re founded 1818) and Cologne (refounded 1918). For purposes of administration the province is divided into the five districts of Coblenz, Diisseldorf, Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle and Trier. Coblenz is the official capital, though Cologne is the largest and most im portant town.
The province is a modern creation, formed in 1815 out of the duchies of Cleves, Berg, Gelderland and kilich, the ecclesiastical principalities of Trier and Cologne, the free cities of Aix-la-Cha pelle and Cologne, and nearly a hundred small lordships and abbeys.