A special aspect of individuals concentrating on what they do best is the more efficient utilization of land and natural resources. What an individual does best depends not only on his intellectual and bodily endowments, but also on the external conditions of nature that confront him. An individual living in a tropical climate, say, is able to grow tropical fruits or vegetables far more easily than someone living in a temperate climate, if the latter can grow them at all. An individual living close to rich deposits of iron ore, say, is able to mine such ore far more easily than someone not living close to such deposits, if the latter can mine iron ore at all.

Thus, a major aspect of the gains provided by the division of labor is that it raises the productivity of labor in the exploitation of land and natural resources. For what many people do best and are led to concentrate on is precisely the exploitation of advantages afforded them by climate and by their proximity to special types of land and natural resources.

The result of specialization along these lines is that every geographical area can obtain products that depend on the special advantages of other areas. Each area that possesses special advantages concentrates on those advantages to some degree and produces more of the products in question than its own inhabitants consume. The difference is exchanged for the products of other areas, which possess different advantages. The effect is that every area can obtain the benefit of the special advantages of every other area. Thus, the people of the whole United States can be supplied with iron ore from Minnesota, coal from Pennsylvania, oil from Texas, wheat from Kansas, corn from Iowa, and oranges from Florida. And, of course, the gains are international: the whole world can benefit from Brazil's advantages in coffee growing, Saudi Arabia's oil deposits, and the advantages of the various American states just described.

Furthermore, the ability of each area to exploit its own advantages vitally depends on its incorporation into the division of labor. For example, very little iron ore could be smelted without coal to provide fuel. By the same token, very little coal could be mined without iron and steel to make possible the production of the necessary equipment. The exploitation of every natural resource is enormously improved by virtue of access to the resources of other areas.