Economic geography

Economic geography: What is it? Many people have at least a vague idea of the meaning of the term economic. They know that it pertains to farming and fishing, incomes and expenses, transportation and taxes, and a good deal else that is somehow related to money. And most people likewise have some notion of what geography means. But here opinions vary sharply. Some think it merely involves the memorization of place names, whereas others regard it as a twin sister of geology. Clearly, then, because of this prevalent vagueness and confusion, before we can pin down the concept of economic geography we should find out what each of the component words means.

This will be precisely our first task in Chapter 1. Then, after fixing our definitions, we can go on to a consideration of the distinctive method of economic geography. As we shall see, it involves three basic questions, which deal with the locations, characteristics, and relationships of economic activities. We shall first apply this geographic method of analysis in Chapter 2 to population for people are the fundamental subject matter of the economic geographer. Then we shall use the method to approach the principal economic activities in which the people of the world are engaged.