ABSTRACT
Tariffs on minerals or industrial raw materials of any sort have not played any important role in modern commercial policy. Besides, it must be borne in mind that in many cases the progress in transportation did not mean an increasing dependence on foreign resources. In countries with an extensive economic territory it meant, in a great number of cases, a transition from local fields of production to geographically concentrated national fields. This chapter presents a few examples of geographical centralization of internationally important raw materials under the influence of world economic interconnections. The huge mining deposits could not be utilized prior to the cheapening of transport. The tendency towards international centralization of industrial raw materials has, of course, been largely responsible for the progressive division of nations into those which export mainly manufactured goods and those which are exporters of raw materials.
