An ultra soft high carbon hot-rolled steel sheet having excellent workability. The steel sheet is a high carbon hot-rolled steel sheet containing 0.2 to 0.7% C, and has a structure in which mean grain size of ferrite is 20 [mu]m or larger, the volume percentage of ferrite grains having 10 [mu]m or smaller size is 20% or less, mean diameter of carbide is in a range from 0.10 [mu]m to smaller than 2.0 [mu]m, the percentage, of carbide grains having 5 or more of aspect ratio is 15% or less, and the contact ratio of carbide is 20% or less. The steel sheet is manufactured by the steps of: rough-rolling the steel; finish-rolling the rough-rolled steel sheet at a temperature of 1100 DEG C or below at inlet of finish rolling, a reduction in thickness of 12% or more at the final pass, and a finishing temperature of (Ar3 - 10) DEG C or above; primary-cooling the finish-rolled steel sheet to a cooling-stop temperature of 600 DEG C or below within 1.8 seconds after the finish rolling at a coolingrate of higher than 120 DEG C/sec; secondary-cooling the primary-cooled steel sheet to hold the steel sheet at a temperature of 600 DEG C or below; coiling the secondary-cooled steel sheet at a temperature of 580 DEG C or below; pickling the coiled steel sheet; and spheroidizing-annealing the pickled steel sheet by the box annealing method at a temperature in a range from 680 DEG C to Ac1 transformation point.