In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, due to natural disasters and social unrest, the economy was badly depressed, leading to the waste of a lot of farmland. Some local landlords and aristocracy established their own strongholds to defend themselves and developed agriculture, which gradually evolved into a self-sufficient manorial system. The system of strongholds and manors also had effects on the economical mode of following dynasties. In addition, because of the collapse of the imperial court, those worn copper coins were not melted and reminted and many privately-minted coins appeared. In the Three Kingdoms period, newly-minted coins never made their way into currency. As a consequence, the main currencies at that time were cloth and grains.

In economic terms the division of the Three Kingdoms reflected a reality that long endured. Even during the Northern Song Dynasty, 700 years after the Three Kingdoms period, it was possible to think of China as being composed of three great regional markets. (The status of the northwest was slightly ambivalent, as it had links with the northern region and Sichuan). These geographical divisions are underscored by the fact that the main communication routes between the three main regions were all man-made: the Grand Canal linking north and south, the hauling-way through the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River linking southern China with Sichuan and the gallery roads joining Sichuan with the northwest. The break into three separate entities was quite natural and even anticipated by such political foresight as that of Zhuge Liang (seeLongzhong Plan).