Urban Versus Rural
Context with Brad Harris
00:00
End Quote - Chicago's Lumber Market
The heartland market was simply so large that Chicago's economies of scale offered unbeatable profits to sellers and unbeatable prices to buyers. By 1880 the city's lumber merchants jointly controlled an estimated capital of over 80 million, a sum several times larger than the aggregate capital held by all the city's banks. Just as rural communities may be ignorant of urban culture and economics, urbanites may be entirely ignorant of the rural logistics involved in producing basic necessities like food and fuel. The integration of different markets is fundamental to modern prosperity.
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