ABSTRACT
The successful growth of large-scale manufacturing and the concentration of industries in areas which offer external economies are dependent on the existence of a trading network which can distribute the goods to the markets in which they are currently in demand without making the cost prohibitive. Local manufactures always have a measure of protection from outside competition, because even if the costs of manufacturing are greater there are no transport costs to bear and the product can be tailored to meet the precise demands of the local customer, whereas a mass-produced good is inevitably made to a more or less standard pattern. This hardly matters in the case of nails and pins, but a saddle must fìt a horse and the wheels of a cart be made to the prevailing local width so that the Wheels may run in the aboriginal cart track ruts.
