Modern Geography

by Marion I. Newbigin

The significance of these various necessaries may perhaps be realised by a few examples. Let us consider first the Mediterranean area. We have seen that it was civilised from a very early date, that a considerable part at least of that civilisation was indigenous, and that its early smiths showed no lack of skill. But with the advent of the age of iron its natural handicap became obvious. The forests of the region never had the luxuriance of those further north, and must have been early destroyed, and coal is virtually absent. Iron ores are present and are widely distributed; some, like those of Elba and of northern Spain, which is outside the area, are even rich; but the absence of fuel is a terrible handicap, and to its absence we must ascribe the present poverty and backwardness of Mediterranean countries.

It is to be noted, however, that electricity is coming to be used in smelting, and especially for making particular kinds of steel, used for special purposes. To generate this electricity water power is being used, and the appearance of small factories in the valleys of the Alpine border, both in France and Italy, perhaps marks the beginning of a change which will restore to some of the Mediterranean countries their ancient glory.

These small factories are not only employed in manufacturing high-grade steel, but also in making nitrogenous manure from the air, and in other processes. In the valleys in which they occur the inhabitants are forsaking their phylloxera-infested vineyards for the factories, and the association of the neglected land with the busy factories offers a very curious spectacle, and suggests that the twentieth century may see great changes in the present distribution of population.

Meantime this distribution has been almost everywhere in western Europe enormously influenced by the distribution of coal. Everywhere the coal has had an attractive influence, dragging population, wealth, and intelligence from the agricultural regions, even the fertile regions, to the vicinity of the coal measures, where alone great industries can be profitably established.

In Great Britain, where the coal-bearing beds are not only numerous, but in some instances crop out at the surface, coal seems to have been worked earlier than elsewhere in Europe. To its earlier utilisation of coal on a large scale Britain owes its long lead in the struggle for industrial supremacy, and we thus find the effect of coal upon the distribution of the population illustrated in a more striking way here than elsewhere. Further, Great Britain is especially fortunate in that iron usually occurs in close proximity to coal, and that the other necessities for an iron industry are easily obtainable. Its position, sheltered by Ireland, gives it good ports, and it is rich in other minerals as well as in iron ores and coal.

The nature of the change introduced by the great industrial revolution may be realised, for example, by thinking of the great cathedrals of England, and noting how insignificant the towns in which they are placed are at the present day when compared with the great centres which have sprung up near the coalfields. Yet the very existence of these magnificent monuments of the past means that in the old days the towns in which they were placed were not only centres of population and of wealth, but had also prestige enough to draw men’s eyes towards them. Their very peace and cleanliness to-day means that the life of the nation is eddying round other centres. The emotions which found expression in their lofty spires now seek another outlet in the magnificent municipal buildings, the art galleries, the hospitals, the universities and schools of the industrial centres.

The same lesson may be learnt by considering the county towns of some of the counties where the change wrought by the industrial revolution has been greatest. What do the towns of Alnwick, Durham, York, Lancaster, Appleby, Carlisle now signify beside the great towns in Yorkshire and Lancashire, which depend for their existence upon the coalfields?

The great development of North America is similarly the product of the age of iron and coal, and therefore here also population tends to congregate round mineralised regions, and to be sucked away from the early centres, which were determined by other causes.

In brief we say that it is true generally of the civilised world that the attraction of the towns, of which we hear so much, is in reality the attraction of minerals, especially of coal and iron. This attractive power of minerals is no new thing. When the men armed with bronze or copper weapons and tools conquered those with stone implements, when iron was found to be better than all three, then first began that long process which now acts by sucking the countryman into the large industrial towns.