Trade and Traffic
Trade and Traffic
The growth of output and the formation of centralised political structures in organic economies both involved the coordination of activities across growing distances, or ‘spatial integration’. Economic growth did this by promoting trade and regional specialisation, while centralised power is exercised over geographical space. The development of spatial integration in organic economies was hindered by the endemic inadequacy of their transport infrastructure. Although the dominant sector of organic economies was agriculture and the majority of the population lived in the countryside, towns and cities nonetheless fulfilled essential integrating functions as economic and political structures became more complex and differentiated. Output growth and political centralisation in organic economies had important spatial implications. Both processes involved spatial integration on a regional or supra-regional scale and the emergence of towns and cities as integrating centres, and as such their development, was constrained by the economy’s underlying spatial structure.
Keywords: political structures, organic economies, spatial integration, economic growth, trade, regional specialisation, transport infrastructure, agriculture
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