PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 557 
country consists not in its gold and silver only, but in its lands, houses, and 
consumable goods of all different kinds.’' Now no definition of wealth is given by 
economists which excludes this last form of wealth, but the misunderstanding to 
which I refer arises from the fact that this form of wealth is apt to be overlooked. 
It may happen that a country or region produces a great abundance of consumable 
goods in proportion to its population, and hence from this point of view be 
entitled to be regarded as wealthy, and yet may not be a country or region that 
attracts much attention by its wealth. What has always attracted attention to 
wealth, and what has caused wealth to have an important effect in directing the 
main streams of commerce, and commerce to have an important effect, direct or 
indirect, on history, has been the accumulation of much wealth in few hands, so 
that a comparatively small number of people in a community have enjoyed, 
directly or indirectly, the command of a great deal of labour, have had the means 
of providing themselves with commodious and luxurious houses, with a variety 
of other comforts, luxuries, and splendours, and over and above that. the means 
of so directing labour as to add still further to their wealth. Such conditions 
may exist where the great bulk of the population are extremely poor. 
Now, it happens that wherever a great abundance of consumable commodities 
is produced on a relatively small area there is always in that area a greater or 
smaller number of individuals in whose hands much wealth is concentrated. It 
is for economists to explain how this comes about, or has come about, but it is a 
fact of the utmost importance for geographers to bear in mind in considering the 
relations of commerce and geography. 
The existence of a relatively dense population may be due to different causes, 
such as a great abundance of agricultural products, the carrying on of mining or 
manufacturing industries, the concentration of the administration of a great 
dominion, or the pursuit of commerce itself. Where it is due to any cause but 
the production of great quantities of the necessaries of life foodstuffs must be 
imported in large quantities, and where the pursuit of manufactures is the cause, 
or one of the chief causes, then the importing of raw materials is entailed. Where 
these are most advantageously found there also much wealth is likely to be 
accumulated in few hands. : 
Further it is to be noted that where a comparatively small number have the 
command of much wealth there is sure to be a demand for things of such value 
that they can be bought only by the wealthy, things that are more or less rare, 
such as precious metals, jewels, gems, ivory, fine woods, ornamental skins and 
feathers, manufactured goods of rare materials or of fine quality, as well as, in 
many places and in most periods of history, slaves. Such trade is necessarily 
limited in amount, but puts great profits in the hands of those who carry it on 
with success, and for that reason attracts attention. 
With this class of goods may be associated certain others that may be regarded 
as intermediate in position between those which are bought only by the wealthy 
and those which are not merely generally consumed but also very widely 
produced. Amongst these may be mentioned salt, the consumption of ‘which is 
universal, but the production of which, away from the seaboards of the warmer 
latitudes, though in a sense widespread, is strictly confined to scattered spots. A 
more interesting example is that of spices, one of which, pepper, has from a 
remote period been very generally consumed, but in still smaller quantity than 
salt, and for that reason has been able to bear still higher transport costs. For 
ages these costs were very high, for various reasons, amongst which were risks 
both numerous and great, but the profits-of those who were successful in the 
trade were proportionately high. ~~ - 
- Peculiar importance in commercial geography is thereby given to the relations 
between the regions.that yield or yielded spices and those in-which they were 
consumed at a great distance from the place of‘ origin, and one of the most-import- 
ant facts inhuman history is that-for_many hundreds of years an extremely 
valuable trade ‘in these commodities was carried on between India and the 
1- Wealth of Nations, book iv., ch. i. 
