With Hoa's strong presence in trade and industry during the early part of the twentieth century, they emerged as a prosperous economic minority and established themselves as successful businessmen and investors. In the fishing sector, the Hoa maintained a strong presence, particularly in deep sea fishing. Many Hoa delved into coconut and peanut oil production or began their humble careers as laborers on French rubber plantations eventually working their way to start their own tea, pepper, and rice plantations to supply the domestic market. Hoa gardeners monopolized the grocery stores in the suburbs of Saigon and Chinese restaurants and hotels began to take root in every urban market center. In 1906, Chinese and French businesspeople together had a total capital output of 222 million francs, compared to 2 million francs for the native Kinh Vietnamese. The first steam-operated rice milling enterprise owned by the Chinese came into being in 1876 in Cholon. By the end of the nineteenth century, Chinese controlled five of the eight rice milling factories in Saigon-Cholon. In 1920, they expanded to 13 out of the 20 rice mills and by the 1930s, Chinese ended up controlling 75 of the 94 rice mills. By the 1930s, gaps between the large-scale manufacturing, commercial, plantation and financial enterprises held by the French were filled by smaller businesses controlled by the Chinese. Favorable economic policies attracted a rapid influx of Chinese immigrants seeking their financial destiny through business success until the mid-twentieth century. Between 1925 and 1933, some 600,000 Han Chinese immigrants settled in Vietnam. Between 1923 and 1951, as many as 1.2 million Chinese emigrants moved from China to Vietnam. Hoa merchants delved into the rice, liquor, opium and spice trade, where they set up plantations in the rural hinterlands of the Mekong delta and sold its products in Cholon. In the north, the Hoa were mainly rice farmers, fishermen, and coal miners, except for those residing in cities and provincial towns. The French regularly worked with Chinese businessmen in the agriculture and heavy industry sectors, and the latter often served as middlemen to liaise between themselves and the French in the domestic trade sector.