The same lesson may be learnt by considering the county towns of some of the counties where the change wrought by the industrial revolution has been greatest. What do the towns of Alnwick, Durham, York, Lancaster, Appleby, Carlisle now signify beside the great towns in Yorkshire and Lancashire, which depend for their existence upon the coalfields? The great development of North America is similarly the product of the age of iron and coal, and therefore here also population tends to congregate round mineralised regions, and to be sucked away from the early centres, which were determined by other causes. In brief we say that it is true generally of the civilised world that the attraction of the towns, of which we hear so much, is in reality the attraction of minerals, especially of coal and iron. This attractive power of minerals is no new thing. When the men armed with bronze or copper weapons and tools conquered those with stone implements, when iron was found to be better than all three, then first began that long process which now acts by sucking the countryman into the large industrial towns. When coal became supremely important the small industries, previously scattered over the localities where some specially favourable conditions presented themselves, began to concentrate near the coalfields. With the cheap power they developed out of all proportion to their old state, and new industries were added to the old. Thus began that process which made the great manufacturing nations seek markets far beyond their own shores, and produce far in excess of their own needs. This, again, has led to enormous improvements in the means of communication. It must itself, however, be necessarily a more or less temporary phenomenon, to be replaced sooner or later by other conditions, as the new nations become manufacturers in their turn, and cease to offer unlimited markets to the old. In regard to the localisation of industries, it is interesting to note that though the industries are attracted towards coal, local conditions generally determine which industry or industries shall prosper round a particular coalfield. The moist climate of Lancashire, with the relative proximity of the cotton supplies of the Southern United States, has determined the cotton industry of Lancashire. Once established the advantages associated with a going concern make it very difficult for other districts to capture trade, even when they have greater natural advantages, _e. g._ the Southern States themselves are now manufacturing areas, but cannot compete on equal terms with Lancashire.