Imagine a very large town, at the centre of a fertile plain which is crossed by no navigable river or canal. Throughout the plain the soil is capable of cultivation and of the same fertility. Far from the town, the plain turns into uncultivated wildernesss which cuts off all communication between this State and the outside world. There are no other towns on the plain. The central town must therefore supply the rural areas with all manufactured products and in return it will obtain all its provisions from the surrounding countryside. - J. H. von Thünen (1826; 1842, p.11)
