Abstract
Brazil and Australia are known as the world's largest producer and exporter of coffee beans and wool, respectively, and Thailand is known as the world's largest exporter of rice. This type of quantity, i.e., size and ranking in terms of production and/or export, is defined here as “absolute quantity.” However, percentages of the total exports in coffee beans, wool and rice are so small that those commodities do not substantially support the economy of Brazil, Australia, or Thailand, respectively. Moreover, percentages of the total value of agricultural production of Brazil and Australia in coffee beans and wool, respectively, are also very small. This latter type of quantity, i.e., relative importance within a region, is defined here as “relative quantity,” which is more appropriate for regional geography.
The traditional geography textbooks, however, placed too much emphasis on absolute quantities, and students were satisfied with the knowledge that coffee in Brazil and wool in Australia were basic important key words to describe these regions. Such information may be of practical use for those wanting to import these commodities, but “buyer's geography” differs greatly from regional geography. Another problem of buyer's geography is that geographical education has been overly focused on exports. Rice production in Indonesia, for example, is rarely mentioned in traditional geography textbooks simply because Indonesia does not export rice, neglecting the facts that Indonesia is the world's third-largest producer of rice and rice is the most important agricultural commodity in terms of value of production.
Some absolute quantities, however, can be important. It is well known, for example, that most people in India are Hindus in contrast to neighboring Muslim countries. But we should not overlook the fact that the absolute number of Muslims in India is comparable to that in Pakistan and greater than that in Bangladesh, not only from the viewpoint of the distribution of the Muslim population but also from that of regional geography for a better understanding of India.
Different spatial scales are important from both absolute and relative viewpoints. Not only absolute quantity but also relative quantity will be significantly affected if Brazil, Australia, India, China, the USA, etc. are divided into sub-national regions. It is expected that a new, comprehensive study framework for regional geography will be developed by taking into account of absolute and relative quantities as well as different spatial scales.
