Walker - 1967 - A geography of Italy

PART I V : ECONOM IC GEOGRAPHY
i.
I I i : !
Ilj!!l
liili
hands o f one firm, Olivetti, with its main factory at Ivrea and others at Turin
and Pozzuoli. It has recently come under the control o f an American concern.
The machine tool industry, although much expanded in recent years, is still
imable to supply all the covmtry’s diverse requirements and there is a large import
o f German, Swiss and American products. As in so many other sectors the
machine tool industry is overwhelmingly concentrated in Turin and in Milan and
its environs.
Civil engineering
In no other branch o f activity was the boom decade more exuberantly and obviously
manifested than in building and construction. Stimulated by an ambitious
programme o f public works and by a demand for more and better housing, which
was a natural consequence o f the rise in living standards, it was sustained by the
readiness with which banks, insurance companies and individuals were willing to
invest in property.^ The recession o f 1963 and the inevitable restriction o f credit
accompanying it caused an immediate decline in activity with serious consequences
for the employment situation not only in building itself, which is the
largest user o f unskilled labour, but in the industries dependent on it (sanitary
ware, fittings, etc.). Since the war Italian civil engineering concerns have found
an outlet for their skill and experience overseas. Dams on the Zambezi, Atbara,
Volta, Ladhon, Douro and Volta are among their best-known achievements.
The chemical industry
Although most o f the deposits concerned are modest in size and often inconveniently
located, the subsoil o f Italy provides a wide variety o f chemical raw
materials. Sulphur is abundantly available from the mines o f Sicily, from the
pyrites o f Tuscany and as a by-product o f oil refining; nitrates are produced from
lignite, from natural gas and by atmospheric fixation; and salt is produced from
pans and from the Miocene rocks o f Tuscany and Sicily, which also yield gypsum.
Other useful minerals present are borax (Cecina valley), fluorspar (Trentino),
bauxite (Abruzzi), lead-zinc ore (Sardinia) and potash, recently discovered
in large quantities in central Sicily (San Cataldo). As in other European countries
the outstanding development in recent years has been the spectacular expansion
o f the petro-chemical industry with its multiplicity o f by-products, not least
rubber, plastics and synthetic fibres. In this respect the discovery o f natural gas in
the Po Valley and in Sicily has been most fortunate. Despite the production o f so
many o f Italy’s chemical raw materials in the peninsula and islands, the majority
o f the processing and manufacture is carried out in the North - the main consuming
area - but the expansion o f oil refining and petro-chemicals elsewhere in
recent years (Naples, Bari, Brindisi, Augusta, Gela, Pisticci) has done something
to redress the balance. New coking capacity is also making its contribution but
* Building has always been a favoured activity since no taxes are demanded on private
houses or apartments until 25 years have elapsed.
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