Page:Isaiah Bowman - Desert Trails of Atacama (1924).pdf/79

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Population of the Nitrate Desert
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it belongs to the first comer. It is the ratio of supply to de- mand at a given restricted and isolated locality that deter- mines the price, not the ratio of the aggregate supply to the de- mand of the whole geographic province. In short, there are no

Fig. 21—Chañar tree at Calama. It is from this tree that a fruit is produced which is illustrated in Figure 22.

railroads and only the most primitive means of carriage for freight and passengers; and no specialized production or ade- quate equalization of surplus products of any kind. Further- more, these primitive means of communication are expensive.

In general, one must either grow one’s own produce or live very expensively. Only a rich mine or a thriving business enables one to live permanently upon the market and not