Language provides us with convenient generalisations that often conceal as much as they reveal. The term ‘rural economy’ fits into this category. In the UK the rural economy ranges from the lush pastures of Cheshire, interspersed with the residences of the wealthy, to the bleak Highlands and the isolated, windswept Western Isles. When we look for the optimum use of the resources involved in such areas no one solution can suit all. Equally our emotional attachment to rural economies often embraces the idea that they are timeless. In reality all rural economies are dynamic and some are changing very rapidly as this conference takes place. Probably the most useful task for those who seek to help farmers and planners is to come to an understanding of the moving economic equilibrium, towards which at any one time we are tending. That equilibrium can be represented as a balance between the inflows and outflows of people, money and physical resources at any one time.