The original economic base of trade and transportation has expanded greatly to include finance, aerospace, printing, telecommunications, tourism, pharmaceuticals, textiles, software and tobacco. (moneysense.ca)
Depending on the size of the community sometimes a single industry could be the entire economic base for a community. (teenanalyst.com)
The American consumer, if it were a country of its own, would be the largest economic base in the world. (businessinsider.com)