Introduction

The things we worry most about are the ones which most affect our earnings and our living standards. A large part of the time we give to working things out and taking in information is given up to matters of income, the price of food, housing costs, fuel costs, taxation and government spending. Nor is this only true of the individual. Despite Plato’s injunction that government should not be seen as home economics writ big, politics is largely a matter of housekeeping for the state. At either level human life is still dominated by having to ensure that material needs are satisfied. As individuals, family members and citizens we would like to be able to foresee events, whether we can control them or not. The power to predict improves the outcome in any area of life where control is possible. To buy goods, to order our finances and to invest in buildings, land and machines as best as we can to meet our needs, we have to guess at the shape of the future. Beyond wild surmise, such forecasting requires an understanding of how the world works. The explanation of events lies in the circumstances which conspire to give rise to them. Circumstance is a matter of place as well as time, geography as well as history. For many choices we make it is important that the place be right as well as the timing. The focus of this book is on the geographical circumstances governing the economizing of limited resources. The questions it raises will essentially be about the best places to produce, consume and invest.