ABSTRACT
Friedmann notes that the organization of the world city system is far from haphazard; key patterns may be detected. Global capital tends to use certain cities throughout the world as “basing points” in which investments and the development of markets predominate. There is a linear character to the distribution of global cities along an East—West axis. The Asian sub-system of global cities stretches from Tokyo to Singapore. The core cities of the American subsystem are New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, with linkages north to Toronto and south to Mexico City and Caracas. Finally, the European sub-system includes London, Paris, and cities in the Rhine Valley, with linkages to a few cities in the southern hemisphere.
