MODERN BUSINESS GEOGRAPHY
INTROD UCTION
CHAPTER ONE
COTTON: AN EXAMPLE IN COMMERCIAL AND
INDUSTRIAL GEOGRAPHY
Tue world’s main business is getting a living. To do this, man
must first obtain the food, clothing, and shelter that he needs to keep
himself alive, and then must satisfy his other needs. As he works at
his business of getting a living, man finds himself constantly helped
or hindered by his geographical surroundings; they affect his daily
work in a thousand ways.
Business geography is the study of the relation between man’s
daily work and the geographical conditions upon which his work
depends. It explains what these conditions are and what is their
effect; it shows what man can do to utilize the benefits that they
bestow upon him or to overcome the obstacles that they put in his
way. We study this branch of geography in order to learn what
man’s working capital is and what use he makes of it.
When we look into the history of the things that we use in our daily
life, we find that every one of them was originally produced directly
from nature; that is, from field, forest, ocean, or mine. In order to
get a living, then, the first thing people must do is to produce some-
thing — food, or wool, or lumber, or iron, or any one of a thousand
other things that we use daily. This first step in the work of provid-
ing the things that we need is called production.
Few things can be used in the exact place where they are pro-
duced. Berries may be picked from the bush and transferred to the
mouth with no intervening stages, but most products must be trans-
ported to the place where they are to be used. This second step in
the business of supplying the needs of the world is called {ransporla-
tion.
Although a few commodities can be used in the raw state, the great
majority must be prepared in some way. Wheat must be ground,
copper smelted, leather tanned. Or perhaps many materials are com-
bined, as glass, metals, jewels, and enamels are combined in a beau-
tiful clock. This work of preparation is called manufacturing, or
secondary production, in contrast to the original, or primary, pro-
duction.
