“城”与“乡”这两个对称的术语,在所有社会生活领域广泛使用,内容非常灵活多变。但是对科学来说,概念必须十分准确才能说清问题。当代的许多“城乡关系”理论家们,一直特别受到英国古典政治经济学家的深刻影响。卡尔·马克思的政治经济学也是从英国古典政治经济学发展而成的。人们通常推亚当·斯密(Adam Smith)为英国古典政治经济学的奠基人,但我以为推崇斯图亚特(Steuart)更为恰当。因为斯图亚特的政治经济学著作 Two symmetrical terms, “city” and “country”, are widely used in all social life fields and their content is very flexible. But for science, concepts must be very accurate in order to clarify the issue. Many contemporary “urban-rural relations” theorists have been particularly impressed by the British classical political economists. Karl Marx's political economy is also developed from the classical classical British political economy. People usually push Adam Smith as the founder of British classical political economy, but I think it is more appropriate to promote Steuart. Because of Stuart's political economy books