tegwick
2d1282a61e
Restructure entity storage from per-chapter subdirectories to a flat
canonical set in output/entities/. Each entity exists as a single file;
duplicates across chapters are detected by slug collision and skipped
(first occurrence wins). Chapter views use {{ include }} transclusion
to reference shared entity files.
Add @{existing_entities} macro to extract-entities template so the LLM
knows which entities already exist and focuses on genuinely new ones.
Refactor _call_llm() from _execute_llm() for callers that handle their
own file I/O. 41 unique entities from 4 chapters (2 duplicates removed).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
1.4 KiB
North American Colonial Settlement Pattern
Definition
The observed geographic pattern in which European plantations and settlements in North America concentrated along the sea-coast and the banks of navigable rivers, rarely extending to any considerable inland distance. Smith presents this as contemporary empirical evidence for his thesis that market access via water-carriage drives economic development and settlement.
Source Chapter
Book 1, Chapter 3: "That the Division of Labour is Limited by the Extent of the Market"
Context
Smith cites the colonial settlement pattern immediately after arguing that inland areas develop later than coastal ones. It serves as a bridge between his theoretical argument about water-carriage and his historical survey of ancient civilisations, showing that the same principle operates in the contemporary New World.
Economic Domain
General Theory
Smith's Original Wording
"In our North American colonies, the plantations have constantly followed either the sea-coast or the banks of the navigable rivers, and have scarce anywhere extended themselves to any considerable distance from both."
Modern Interpretation
This observation aligns with modern economic geography's finding that population density and economic activity correlate strongly with proximity to coasts and navigable waterways. It also reflects the broader principle that infrastructure access is a primary determinant of settlement patterns.