Walker - 1967 - A geography of Italy

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INDUSTRY
plastics, fibre glass and paints. Among the less important textiles, fiax and hemp
manufacturing is concentrated mainly in southern Lombardy, but Naples also
shares in this activity and is outstanding in jute processing.
Italians with their long traditions in the field have a strong feeling for textiles
and they excel in colour and design. Exports have benefited from the creation o f
a fashionable image for Italian goods (in knitwear, for example) which has been
assisted by the reputation o f Rome as a centre o f haute couture - a development
which owes something to the film industry. The ready-made clothing industry,
with its dependence on chain stores to retail its goods, is still much less important
than in Britain; it is gaining ground but there is still an understandable preference
for the individual dressmaker and tailor.
As a craft industry shoemaking survives almost everywhere in Italy but the
factory production o f footwear is concentrated heavily in the North, notably at
Vigevano (the biggest single centre), Varese, Milan, Montebellima and Bologna,
but Tuscany and Umbria also share in the trade. Itahan manufacturers have been
particularly successful in imposing their fashions on the rest o f Europe— to the
benefit o f exports. A speciality o f Cornuda is the manufacture o f skiing and
climbing boots, an activity demanding skilled craftsmanship.
Wood industries
The furniture industry has benefited from the rise in living standards and from a
boom in building since the early fifties. It is represented in most large consuming
areas but the factories o f Lombardy, especially in the Brianza, have more than
local importance. The Marche and Tuscany also have a stake in the industry.
The paper industry too, with its large demands on water, is also mainly a
northern activity in which Turin, Milan, Como, Varese, Vercelli, Cuneo and
Novara have an interest; Liguria produces mainly wrapping paper. The Centre’s
contribution (about 25% o f the total) is mainly provided by Lazio (Tivoli,
Isola di Liri, Cassino), where rag and waste paper are the raw materials used, and
by the Marche. Fabriano was Europe’s first producer o f paper.
Alimentary industries
Were it possible to calculate accurately the workers effectively employed in food
processing, ranging from the provision o f the humblest necessities o f life at the
village level to the sophisticated factory product, it would probably emerge as
the largest single employer o f labour. Despite their importance in the internal
economy the alimentary industries have shared less than most in the post-war
expansion o f production and exports. There have been changes, o f course,
notably a swing towards standardized branded products, and a concentration of
production in larger units. Since Italy is capable o f producing a greater range of
products and is less dependent on imports than Britain, food manufacturing has
a wider distribution and such activities as milling, malting, sugar refining and oil
seed and meat processing are less obviously concentrated at the ports; indeed,
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