320

Modern Business Geography

Fig. 187. In Jaipur, as in many other cities of India, the open space of the main street is the
public market.

CONSUMPTION

What primary products are available for export from Asia. The
importance of an article in world trade depends partly on whether it
is produced in amounts larger than are needed for immediate consumption.
 For instance, the Indian peninsula produces an enormous amount
of millet, but as practically all of it is used as food, locally, it is far less
important in world trade than the lead of Australia, even though its
actual value is greater. Moreover, millet is not a kind of food that is
desired in large quantities in progressive countries, and the demand
for it is therefore small.
31. Is this true of any of the important products of the United States?
Have we a large export trade in corn? sugar? lumber? Consult the
Year Book of the Department of Agriculture.

If each of the continents consumed goods in proportion to the number
 of its people, Asia would need about 50 per cent of each of the
products shown in Table V. China alone has more people than Europe,
 and about five times the number of people in the United States.
32. Take the list made for Exercise 4, of the primary products which Asia
produces to the extent of at least 20 per cent of the world’s total. Arrange
 the products according to the size of the percentages in Table V.