Walker - 1967 - A geography of Italy

THE N ORTH ERN LOW LANDS
burden of rural under-employment and has enabled the farmer to use machinery
profitably. Moreover, Lombardy has been more fortunate than most o f Italy in
its rtilers. For example, under the Austrian and French administrations o f the
late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the break-up o f the estates o f the
aristocracy and the distribution o f communal land broadened the basis o f
ownership and further involved the bourgeoisie (the most progressive element in
the community) in agriculture.
Lombardy’s lead among the regions o f Italy in industry is even more marked
than in agriculture. In 1961^ over one-quarter o f the coimtry’s industrial workers
were employed there, a proportion twice that o f Piedmont, Lombardy’s nearest
rival. Furthermore, although there is no shortage o f small concerns of the workshop
type, Lombardy has the biggest proportion o f workers employed in large
units; these are the enterprises which pay high wages and often provide lavish
fringe benefits and at the same time are efficient and account for a large part o f
Italy’s exports.
Even in the pre-factory era Lombardy had a long-established reputation in
commerce and manufacturing, notably in banking, textiles and metal working,
but the modern expansion in terms of large-scale industry does not go much
further back than the end o f the nineteenth centmry. Agricultural riches, a concentrated
market, good communications internally and through the Alps, water
supplies, hydro-electric power and later gas - all these played their part in promoting
industry, but great weight should also be given to the enterprising spirit
of the Lombards and especially o f the Milanese. Milan is the spiritual home o f
the Italian industrial tycoon and the respect accorded to hard work in the pursuit
of business is almost as great here as in North America.
The absence o f locally produced solid fuels and minerals and the ease o f distribution
of electric power have tended to favour the growth of industry in or near
old-estabUshed market and administrative centres enjoying good communications.
From its physical nature the upper plain has always been more favotnable
to the development o f communications and urbanization than the lower plain and
these advantages are clearly reflected in the industrial distribution, but the distinction
is tending to become less valid as manufacturers seek to avoid the congestion
and high land prices near Milan and take advantage o f uncommitted
labour resources in areas formerly dependent on agriculture.
Food processing is one activity in which the lower plain is well represented;
Cremona, Lodi and Pavia are noted for their cheese (Gorgonzola, Parmesan) and
butter production but much o f the large-scale manufacturing, for example of
pasta and confectionery (Motta, Allemagna), is none the less concentrated in
Milan. The textile industry, much the most important in the country, is located
mainly in the upper plain; cottons, the most important sector, are manufactmed
at Busto Arsizio, Gallarate, Legnano, Monza and Bergamo although Voghera
and Vigevano are also notable in this connection. The spinning and weaving of
^Industrial census of that year.
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