ABSTRACT
The role of the land market in the provision of urban living space is a neglected and yet important determinant of housing type and quality, providing the initial point of intersection between the demand for and supply of urban space. The price mechanism may be relegated to a position of secondary importance in any given outcome of land usage, but that should not obscure its underlying influence in explanations of residential differentiation, urban zoning and related issues. The process of functional specialization in land use is, however, an evolutionary one. The internal structure of nineteenth-century British cities possesses many common denominators, based to some degree on functional specialization in land use. Greater realism and historical relevance can be introduced into the schema already advanced by incorporating changes in population, real income and technological development in urban transport. Population growth, by contrast, offers a reversal of the stimulus.
