CHAPTER 24: INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY AND
GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I.
Introduction
II. The "pre-industrial" world
A. Industrial development began in many countries before the Industrial Revolution
1. Examples of India and China
2. How European commercial companies laid the groundwork for colonial expansion
III. The Industrial Revolution
1. European domestic markets were growing, and a labor force was lacking in
England
2. The steam-driven engine made up for the lack of available labor
3. Coal made into high-carbon coke was far superior in iron smelting
4. The power loom revolutionized the weaving industry
5. Freed from charcoal use, iron smelters could be concentrated near British coal
fields
6. Transportation and communications were affected
7. The first steam-powered ocean-going vessel emerged
8. England held a monopoly over products in world demand and the skills to make
machines to manufacture them
9. Diffused eastward across Europe from England (Figure 24-1)
IV. The location decision
A. Secondary industries are less dependent on resource location
1. Raw materials can be transported to distant locations for conversion into finished
goods
2. Secondary industries weigh the variable costs before choosing a location
3. Distance decay—the idea that the impact of a function or activity will decline as
one moves away from its point of origin
B. Weber's model
1. Least cost theory
2. Minimization of three critical expenses
a) Transportation costs— most critical
b) Labor costs
c) Agglomeration—when a substantial number of enterprises cluster in the same
area
3. Some argued his theory did not account for variations in costs over time
C. Factors of industrial location
1. Most, but not all economies are guided by market mechanism and relationships
between supply and demand
a) Some evolved under state planning—example of the former Soviet Union
b) Discussion of capitalists who built great iron works in Europe and