ABSTRACT
The industrial societies only too promptly, massively, and forcibly manifest themselves as an active presence in the environment of these other societies, who are constantly required to adjust to changes induced by the continuing evolution of their host societies. Industrial society appeared to have come of age, to have matured with remarkable fidelity along the main lines outlined by the nineteenth-century sociologists. The post-industrial society is organized around knowledge, or rather, around a special type of knowledge, since knowledge has been necessary for the existence of any society. The changed patterns of trade have been made possible through the industrial societies' improved techniques in manufacturing and agriculture, and the substitution of synthetics for many natural products. The only economic bargaining power which the tropical belt possesses in relation to the developed temperate countries lies in its ability to withhold supplies of tropical products.
