Jiangsu boasts a long history.

Human beings started to live in the area of Nanjing more than 100 thousand years ago. Primitive villages appeared in Nanjing and near Taihu Lake over 6000 years ago to begin primal agriculture production.

The smelting and forging of bronze wares in Jiangsu 3000 years ago reached a quite high technological level. In the 3rd to the 6th centuries A.D., Nanjing became the economic and cultural center of south China. In the 7th to the 10th centuries, China's economic center moved southward generating the sayings like "the sustenance of the country depends on the southeast". Yangzhou turned the most prosperous city in China then.

In the 14th to the mid of 17th centuries, Suzhou, Songjiang and Nanjing became the cradle of the capitalism in China. In the later 19th century, neoteric industries such as filature, textile, flour and coal excavation were developed successively in Wuxi, Nantong, Suzhou, Changzhou and Xuzhou. Thereafter, Jiangsu's economic and social development has always been keeping ahead in China.