ABSTRACT

In the pre-industrial age the great majority depended upon their immediate rural surroundings for supplies of food, and were firmly rooted in the agricultural life of the countryside. Modern transport has removed the one-time dependence of towns upon local food-supplies, and other modern developments have brought about the multiplication on a great scale of other categories of towns, notably industrial towns and resorts, which in origin at least were quite unconnected with their rural environs. Towns are also headquarters of numerous social organisations which are the outcome of voluntary associations. The outstanding and indeed the most general economic function discharged by towns is distribution. The association between the shopping and entertainment functions of towns is very close. It has been implicit throughout the discussion of relations within the urban field that they involve a constant coming and going between town and region.