Not really, overall. I’m more familiar with the Han Dynasty rather than Roman civilization, so I’ll mainly be focusing on what the Han had during this time period.

General Background

The populations of both the Han Empire and the Roman Empire at their heights are relatively similar. Ebrey’s Cambridge Illustrated History of China (1999) estimates the maximum population of Han China to be 58 million. A quick Wiki-hop puts the Roman population between 14 AD and 100 AD at somewhere between 44 (at the low end) and 70 (at the high end) million (Goldsmith 1984, Hopkins 1995/6, Temin 2006, Maddison 2007, Milanovic 2007, Bang 2008).

The Han Dynasty is the successor to Qin Shi Huang’s prominent but extremely short-lived empire. The Han continued off of the Qin’s momentum and laid down the foundations for much of the cultural and governmental practices of the later dynasties.

Economy

Both Rome and the Han used minted coins as a universal currency; the Han mainly used donut-shaped bronze coins minted while the Romans often switched currencies repeatedly with the changing of every emperor. (Scheidel 2008). However, Scheidel also mentions that many of the official weight and currency standards placed by the central Han government were rarely, if ever, actually enforced in day-to-day practice. The Hanshu, a primary documentation of the history of the Han by the Ban family, describes (as translated in Scheidel 2008):

“Coins which the people are using vary from province to province, and from county to county. In some places the coins used are [so] light that to every one hundred of them must be added a certain number. In other places those used are [so] heavy that it is impossible to balance them equitably.”

For agriculture, the Han were moving away from the ineffective semi-feudal system of the Warring States, choosing instead to adopt a system of private, family-owned farmers independently choosing their crops based on market forces and demands. Contrasting with the purely sustenance-focused Qin, the Han were much more laissez-faire and encouraged the creation of a new merchant middle class; trade with western nations and lands began increasing after the Han defeated the Xiongnu (Asiatic Huns) tribes in Western China. (Morton 2004)

The Han continued the common practice of Chinese dynasties “demanding” tribute from smaller tribes or states, in return for trade rights. In fact, the practice of tribal leaders paying tribute to the Han emperor was really a guise for trading luxury goods, as the emperor would “pay” for the tribute in the form of reciprocal gifts. Many records of traders and tributaries passing through county-level postal outposts or forts have recently been discovered at the Xuanquan site in the western province of Gansu. One notable excerpt of the Xuanquan manuscripts, as translated by Jidong (2015), describes a group of envoys filing a complaint with the local governor regarding the confiscation of several camels by a local military official. The envoys mentioned that they were enroute to pay tribute to the Han emperor as representatives of the “King of Kangju”.

The subsequent processing and bureaucracy described in that particular subset of the Xuanquan manuscripts illustrates the highly organized Han bureaucracy and market system.

Metallurgy

I couldn’t dig up any legitimate primary sources describing Han metallurgic practices, as information on that subject is likely scarce. However, Cutter (2012) describes a bronze sword excavated in 1965 in Hubei province engraved with designs explicitly naming King Goujian of the State of Chu of the Zhou Dynasty as the owner. The sword is decorated with shards of blue glass.

Furthermore, as previously mentioned, the Han used mainly bronze and silver coins for their currencies.

During the late Han period leading up to the Three Kingdoms period, Cutter (2012) also describes that Cao Cao’s son, Cao Pi, had commissioned three swords in the mid-3rd century. Cutter translates several fragments of Cao Pi’s Model Essays and notes a passage:

I selected fine metal and commanded state artisans to refine them [i.e., these weapons] meticulously, up to a hundredfold refinings. When they were first being made, multiple hues filled the furnace; a gigantic bellows pumped on its own; the numinous objects were obscured; flying bird [sparks] soared and danced. ...The first of them is four chi two cun in length [98.7 cm] and weighs one jin fifteen liang [426.25 g]. It was quench-hardened by means of [water from] the clear Zhang River, whetted using corundum, decorated with patterned jade, inlaid with two-horned rhinoceros horn.

Thus, by the late Han period, the Chinese clearly possessed the ability to use furnace, bellows, and understood the concept of metallurgic principle of quenching for use in bronze and iron production.

Agriculture

Several sources note that the Han possessed the knowledge and widespread usage of seed drills rather than hand sowing seeds. The Han also used individual iron plows incorporated with a seed box and drills.

The Han, by this time, were also experimenting with crop rotation and "pit field" farming techniques, which involved the positions of "furrows" and "ridges" being alternated between growing years; crops would first be planted in highly-fertilized pits that would allow fast propagation then would be transplanted into the fields. (Nishijima 1986).

Sources Cited

Robert Joe Cutter. “‘Well, How'd You Become King, Then?’ Swords in Early Medieval China.” Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 132, no. 4, 2012, pp. 523–538.

Jidong, Yang. "Transportation, Boarding, Lodging, And Trade Along The Early Silk Road: A Preliminary Study Of The Xuanquan Manuscripts." Journal Of The American Oriental Society 135.3 (2015): 421-432. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.

Goldsmith, Raymond W. (1984): "An Estimate of the Size and Structure of the National Product of the Early Roman Empire", Review of Income and Wealth, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 263–288

Hopkins, Keith (1995/6): "Rome, Taxes, Rents, and Trade", Kodai, Vol. 6/7, pp. 41–75.

Temin, Peter (2006): "Estimating GDP in the Early Roman Empire", Lo Cascio, Elio (ed.): Innovazione tecnica e progresso economico nel mondo romano, Edipuglia, Bari, ISBN 978-88-7228-405-6, pp. 31–54

Milanovic, Branko; Lindert, Peter H.; Williamson, Jeffrey G. (Oct. 2007): "Measuring Ancient Inequality’, NBER Working Paper 13550, pp. 58–66

Nishijima, Sadao (1986), "The economic and social history of Former Han", in Twitchett, Denis; Loewe, Michael, Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 545–607, ISBN 978-0-521-24327-8.

Bang, Peter Fibiger (2008): The Roman Bazaar: A Comparative Study of Trade and Markets in a Tributary Empire, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-85532-2, pp. 86–91