The Dictionary of Human Geography

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closely associated with the work of the

Canadian economic historian Harold A. Innis

(1894–1952). In Innis’ account, and the basis

for the school of Canadianpolitical econ-

omy, staples production creates economic

instability and hinterland dependency for

staples-producing regions. At least three

causes are at work:

(1) marketsfor staplecommoditiesapproxi-

mate more closely perfect competition

than do those for manufactured goods.

Staples regions are price-takers in markets

where unpredictability is the norm,

producing cycles of boom and bust.

(2) For a variety of reasons (technological

innovationsthat reduce resource inputs

for production, the growth of synthetic

substitutes, and low long-run income

elasticities of demand), the terms of

trade for primary commodities are in-

creasingly less favourable to staples-

producing areas.

(3) resourceextraction or production tends

to be undertaken by large, often foreign-

owned,transnational coroporations.

Spry (1981) argues that this is a direct

consequence of the large capital expend-

itures and production indivisibilities asso-

ciated with staples. The presence of such

firms in staples regions creates a number

of potential problems for the region in-

cluding: the appropriation of economic

rentsbecause of the undervaluing of re-

sources by thelocal statein order to

induce investment; the failure to process

the staple prior to export (and where

value-added occurs) because resource ex-

traction is only one stage within a verti-

cally integrated corporation that for

reasons of internal control locates manu-

facture elsewhere; the low levels of tech-

nological innovation and development;

the lack of local control; and finally, a

weakened ability to control trade thro-

ugh explicit policy because of the high

degree of intra-corporate transfers.

For Innis, there is thus a direct relationship

between the type oftradein which a staples

region engages and its level of social and

economic development. This contradicts the

orthodox neo-classical theory of trade (see

neo-classical economics), which would

maintain that a staples nation such as

Canada benefits from specializing in and

exchanging those commodities in which it pos-

sesses a comparative advantage, namely

primary resources. But in drawing upon this

theory, as Innis (1956 [1929], p. 3) wrote in

the late 1920s, economists ‘attempt to fit their

analysis of new economic facts into ... the eco-

nomic theory of old countries ... The handi-

caps of this process are obvious, and there is

evidence to show that [this is]. .. a new form of

exploitation with dangerous consequences.’.

To circumscribe such exploitation, Innis

developed his theory in such a way that it

was peculiarly suited to the economic facts

of staples regions. He brought together three

types of concerns: geographical/ecological,

institutional and technological (Barnes,

1996, ch. 8). Innis argued that when the right

technology came together with the right geog-

raphy and the right institutional structure, the

result wasaccumulationof ‘cyclonic’ frenzy.

In this way, virgin resource regions were

transformed and enveloped within the pro-

duced spaces of the capitalist periphery.

Such intense accumulation, however, never

lasts, and because of the very instabilities of

staples production, sooner rather than later

investment shifts to yet other staples regions,

leaving in its wake abandoned resource sites

and communities. As countries such as

China and India rapidly industrialize, draw-

ing in immense flows of staples commodities,

transforming regions and creating shudders

across the world’s resources sites, Innis’ the-

ory has never been more relevant (Hayter,

Barnes and Bradshaw, 2003). tb

Suggested reading

Barnes (1996, ch. 8); Drache (1995).

state A centralized set of institutions facili-

tating coercive power and governing capabil-

ities over a defined territory. No one

definition of the state is adequate given the

way that states have varied in their form and

function over time and space. However,

Michael Mann (1984a) has identified the def-

initional need to incorporate both institutional

and functional concerns, or what the state

looks like and what it does. His subsequent

definition can be summarized as follows:

(1) a set of institutions and their related per-

sonnel;

(2) a degree of centrality, with political de-

cisions emanating from this centre point;

(3) a definedboundarythat demarcates the

territorial limits of the state; and

(4) a monopoly of coercivepowerandlaw-

making ability (Jones, Jones and Woods,

2004, p. 20).

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_S Final Proof page 722 1.4.2009 3:23pm

STATE