THE COMMERCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE NUCLEI OF THE ENGLISH CONURBATIONS.

Students of economic history, following the works of sociologists Gustav Schmoller and Karl Bucher, divide the historic development of economic organization into the three principal successive stages of village, town, and national economy. This genetic interpretation is based upon the growth of the marketing center, the village, the town, and finally the nation being regarded as the nucleus of human life and organization at progressive stages of economic development. Viewed in this light, however, it will be obvious that the term "national economy" implies a misconception. The true marketing nucleus of modern economic life is an outgrowth of the town. The modern large city, which, invested with a great variety of functions of a commercial, cultural and administrative character, is the focal point for the activities and organization of an extensive tributary area, and the medium through which the latter is brought into contact with the world of commerce and ideas. A city of this category has been termed an economic metropolis. The area which is dependent upon it, its metropolitan area, and the type of organization, which sustains it, metropolitan economy.