City dwellers devised means of paying for the production,
transportation and marketing of these necessary imports. The countryside
can and does exist independently of the city because it can provide the
goods and services on which its existence depends. The city, on the
contrary, cannot exist without the supplies produced in the hinterland
and transported to the city.
Urban centers of civilization have for their background a pastoral and
agricultural source of food supplemented by fabrication, merchandising
and financing. Instead of the occupational uniformity of the
countryside, the city offers a wide range of occupations, increased
productivity, quick and substantial profits resulting in a build-up of
capital on one side and enlarged consumer spending on the other.
Consequently the successful competitor in the race for supremacy
develops productivity, accumulates wealth, expands capital spending,
enlarges the scope of the arts, thereby augmenting the city's
attractiveness to business enterprise and migrants from the hinterland.
As the capital city grows in wealth and opportunity it requires larger
imports of food, raw materials, building supplies, manpower. Growing
internal need leads to greater external expansion. Economic, political,
administrative and cultural needs not only increase the demands of the
city on its existing hinterland, but they lead to a demand for a more
widely extended hinterland.
Pages:
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155