Ed Weick wrote:
>
> Thomas,
>
> Your first point is that cities have grown at the expense of the rural
> economy; that is, the growth of cities has been enabled by a transfer of
> wealth from the primary industries of the countryside to secondary and
> tertiary urban industries.
>
> I'm a little of the Jane Jacobs school on this. In "The Economy of Cities"
> Jacobs argues that cities came first and rural development came later, and
> came in response to the growth of cities.
Where did this happen?
I do not know enough about Canadian history to judge about the
development of Canada. But at least this did not happen in Norway.
If we look at the development of industry and towns in Norway since
the Black Death (1350), first we find that Bergen was the largest
town in Norway, and Bergen was the largest town al the time until
about 1845. Bergen was founded be the king, and the foundation of
Bergen was a Monopoly given to Bergen by the king to export fish from
Norway. But that export was going on before Bergen was founded. It
was not at all Bergen which initiated that trade.
And so with most towns in Norway, they were founded by king and
provided for by kings. A large part of Norwegian towns were built
around sawmills. But the forrest industry was created by farmers
living close to waterfalls in the countryside and sailers from
Holland who bought boards and planks. But when this industry became
rich and prosperous the king gave his friends the Monopoly of owning
sawmills, and policeforces closed down the sawmills of the farmers
who created this rich industry and the new bourgoise who got that was
monopoly and was created by that monopoly built the towns by
concentrating the sawmills around the mouth of rivers.
And how did Oslo become the largest town of Norway about the year
1845? What happened was that in 1814 Norway was separated from
Denmark and got its own capital. At that Bergen the largest town of
Norway, and still was all trade, commerce and industry in Bergen
built around its royale monoply in exports of fish. But the small
town of Oslo became the new capital of Norway with only a few
thousand inhabittants. And then all the tax mony that used to go to
Copenhagen began to flow into Oslo, and after thirty years had thouse
tax money made Oslo the largest town on Norway.
> In effect, the growth of cities
> created the markets which enabled forestry, agriculture and other primary
> industries to thrive, and generated the capital that needed for the
> development of the countryside.
Not at all!
I have read some American history, and the money that that built the
modern industries of America 100-150 years ago had two sources: One
was England, investments and loans, and the other was American
agriculture. USA had to buy the technology it needed to become a
industrialized country from Europe, and all it had to pay with was
agricultural products.
And where are values being created today?
I read yeasterday about where manufacturing industries that exports
products are located in Norway, and how large the value of exports
from the different counties and municiaplities are.
Oil is not included. Oslo is at the bottom. Per person (included
children and retired persons etc.) is the export only about 13.000
kr, that is less than 2.000 US dollars kroner. The county which is at
the top is Vest-Agder whiac is exporting a value of abou 86.000
kroner per person, that is 12.000 US dollars per person (included
children etc) And Vest-Agder is not located in the Oslo-fjord region.
The municipality that exports most per person is Rost whic exports a
value of 300.000 kroner per year per person, that is more than
40.000 US dollars. Rost is located north off the Arctic Circle, far
away from Oslo.
And where is breakthrough being develop in Norway, if it is?
Some years ago there were some discussion about if Norway has to fear
industrial espionage. Has Norway got any technology that others do
not have? And the Secret Services revealed that they had discovered
considerable foreign espionage against small shipyards in Norway.
And they were the main target of foreign intelligence.
Many small shipyards along the Norwegian coast are able to build
boats that can go at high speed in stormy weather, with large waves,
and give the passengers a pleasants voyage where the passengers can
drink their coffee without spilling anything, although the waves are
several meters high, and at a speed of more than 30 miles per hour.
At that time this was not possible in any other country.
Although the Norwegian population is very small, only four million
persons, Norway is the second largest country in the World in
commercial operations at sea, and this is developed mostly developed
in small coastal communities.
Norwegian shipyards are going very well. I read a short time ago that
a Norwegian shipbuilding company bought a shipyard in USA, and the
American authorities gave the Norwegian shipbuilder an enormous
amount of money to take over that shipyard.
In 1849 did England change its Navigation Act and thereby allow free
competition about seawards freights. Only 25 years later was the
small Norwegian town Arendal the second largest shipping town in the
World, only second to Liverpool, and it was the farmers and peasants
living around Arendal who buildt and to a large extent owned this
large commercial navy. Soon afterwards most of it collapsed because
it consisted of sailships, and they were outcompeted. And much of
those who survived moved to Oslo, because it was there that the
governement had located most of the Norwegian money which was
necessary to borrow to build steel ships.
> However, two things can happen to the
> countryside as its development proceeds. One is that it can lose its
> natural capital and become depleted and unproductive. The other is that
> more efficient and cheaper sources and methods of supply can be found. Both
> of these things happened to the western Canada of the 1950s. In
> agriculture, for example, soils became depleted, and more efficient and less
> labour-using methods of production were put in place, displacing many people
> from farming. And in energy, the most accessible oil and gas reserves were
> used up first and we are now into a higher cost energy industry.
>
> What can happen, therefore, is that a particular countryside can become less
> and less competitive in the urban marketplace unless it undergoes major
> change. Such change has occurred in the primary industries of western
> Canada over the past few decades, a result being the loss of rural
> population and lifestyle.
Towns are usually built upon some monopoly .
The countryside should develop other industries than farming, and if
the countryside had been able to keep a part of the values it created
there would not be a lack of capital in the countryside.
Another important thing is of course information. The best way to get
it is to be established within an industry and be able to keep close
and continuous contact with major players within that industry.
This is the reason that Norwegian searelated commercial activity is
going so well.
Tor Forde
