The mineral wealth of Manchuria is as yet but little developed. Gold is worked by native methods in several places, but the output is not great. The principal productive coal mines, which are situated at Fushun, near Mukden, and are owned by the South Manchurian Railway (Japanese), yielded in 1911-12 over 1,300,000 tons of good bituminous coal. Iron is found north of Mukden.
The manufactures of Manchuria are not important. Much of the millet grown in the north is too far from good lines of communi cation to enable it to make its way to the coast, and is disposed of to the local distilleries. At Newchwang and Dairen there are numerous mills for the extraction of oil from soya beans and the manufacture of bean-cake. Chinchow-fu, in Fengtien, is the chief centre where carpets and rugs are made from camel's-hair and sheep's wool imported from Mongolia.
The development of Manchuria in the past has been much retarded by the absence of good means of communication. The roads, which are badly made, are impassable quagmires during the rainy season, and are only available for heavy traffic when they are frozen hard during the winter months. The Liao, on the other hand, offers a good means of penetration into the interior during the summer, but is icebound in winter. In these circumstances rail ways are invaluable. The trans-Siberian runs across Northern
Manchuria to Vladivostok by Harbin, where a line breaks off for Mukden and Port Arthur. From Changchun to Port Arthur this line is under the control of Japan and is known as the Soutb Manchuria Railway. Mukden is connected with Tientsin by the North China Railway, and with Antung by a line which is con tinued through Korea to Fusan. Newchwang is linked up by short branches with the lines from Mukden to Tientsin and to Port Arthur.
The two principal ports, Newchwang and Dairen, compete with one another. The former is situated at the mouth of the Liao river, and has the further advantage of offering a shorter land route than Dairen into the interior. On the other hand, it is icebound during the winter months; and it has to some extent been silted up, though steps are now being taken to remedy this defect. Dairen, to the east of Port Arthur, in the leased territory acquired from Russia at the conclusion of the Russo-Japanese war, is open all the year round, and the longer land route which it involves to the interior is compensated for to some extent by favourable rates on the South Manchuria Railway, offered by the Japanese who are doing all in their power to develop the port.