A LOCATION THEORY OF RURAL INDUSTRY

Abstract

The area drained by the middle of the River Kako, Hyogo Prefecture, is a rural district where many old and traditional middle and small industries co-exist. The production of frozen bean-curd, cotton textile, abacuses, fish-hooks, sickles, saws, scissors, knives, razors, etc. is an activity deeply rooted in this rural society in the form of domestic industry, or factory industry on a very small scale. What is characteristic of this district is that while none of the above-mentioned industries is self-supporting in point of productive means such as materials and fuel, their products predominate in the market, domestic or foreign, even monopolize it at times. The author has attempted to establish a location theory of rural industry by picking out the above district where rural industry is most thriving in present-day Japan.In modern capitalistic society, rural industry, which has of necessity to be managed on middle and small scales and whose modernization has lagged far behind as compared with urban indnstry, must have its own raison d'etre. For there exists a distinct relationship of division of work between urban and rural industries, with the result that any industries which need a great deal of labor tend to become rural because they are in this way able to depend on superfluous labor in the agricultural district. The district picked out by the author has labor enough to make those industries possible.With the returning home of emigrants, the industrial technics were brought back, which helped develop various industries in the district. However, it is not possible to find any planning thrgouhout development of certain sorts of industries in cartain areas; on the contrary, there is unconsciousness or accidentalityin every case. Any type of industry, as long as its first requirement was labor, was able to grow in this district.The production of saws, scissors, razors, etc. was at the beginning monopolized by each guild of the town of Miki, in accordance with a common principle of the middle ages. Such a control, however, could not last, and blacskmiths began to appear in the areas surrounding the town. The present-day distribution of blacksmiths forms a pyramid centering round Miki. The same pyramidal distribution of cotton textile industry can be recognized around the town of Nishiwaki.As an important factor deciding the future of any industry, there is changing demand of the market. It exert an influece upon the expansion and transformation of the indnstrial areas that exist in a mixed state. The decrease in demand has caused an indnstrial area to disappear where a certain kind of comb and other old-fashioned articles were produced. On the other hand an industrial area for cotton textile now predominates due to the acquisition of foreign markets.Any industry originally snpported by the quantity of labor will necessarily bring up skilled workers. As a result the quality of labor in turn will become an important factor making that industry possible. Unless those skilled workers move to other districts, the industry inclines to stay where it is originally located even when it undergoes a certain amount of modernisation.