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Modern Business Geography 
Fig. 177. Isolated groups of people living in primitive conditions furnish the smallest markets, 
1s this family of Ladakhis, a shepherd people of central Asia. They are clad in sheepskins and 
their food also comes mainly from their flocks. They use almost nothing which they must 
surchase, except an oceasional weapon or tool made of iron. 
country people; for the country people usually raise part of their own 
food; they may also supply part of their own firewood by cutting it 
in the forest; they generally wear tougher and more durable clothing 
than the city people; and they do not have so much in the way of lux- 
uries and amusements. The greatest of all consumers are rich city 
people in the most progressive parts of the world. Such people buy 
everything that they consume, for they produce nothing that can be 
consumed by themselves or others, even when they do the most val- 
unable work with their brains. Moreover, some of them consume huge 
amounts of very expensive goods. A man may have several automo- 
biles; a woman may have twenty or thirty dresses a year; they may 
live in a huge house, entertain many guests, have a steam yacht, and 
go to the highest-priced theaters. Clearly the differences in these 
respects from place to place are enormous, and must be fully understood 
by anyone who wishes to have a useful knowledge of commercial and 
industrial geography. Such differences, together with differences in 
the kinds of products, are the basis of the foreign commerce which is 
so important in all progressive countries.