Industrial decentralization in Catalonia: the el Vendrell–Valls–Montblanc axis

Abstract

This article is based on an undergraduate dissertation (Tesi de Llicenciatura) presented at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in July 1983. The study focusses attention on one spatial aspect of industry: decentralization and its consequent industrializing effects on former non-industrial areas. Industrial growth through the installation of firms based elsewhere may stimulate development in the receiving area. However, it usually only leads to the growth of the area as a simple production unit, while the functions of financing and control remain in the traditional industrial cities. The spatial separation between production and management is only feasible when adequate means of communication are established between the two locations.

In Catalonia, a number of traditional industrial centres exists, but an increasing number of industrial plants are being located elsewhere. This article analyzes one such alternative area for industrial location: el Vendrell-Valls- Montblanc axle, a region centred on a section of the A-2 and A-7 motorways, which connect Barcelona and the Basque Country. Excellent communications with Barcelona, origin of most of the industrial capital invested since the 1970s, are the area's major asset in the attraction of industrial plants from Barcelona, and indeed from certain parts of Western Europe and North America. A second asset is the semi-rural nature of el Vendrell-Valls-Montblanc axle, which makes for more flexible labour relations, lower land and labour costs, and hence reductions in production costs. In the study use is made of both statistical data and information obtained through interviews, in order to analyze: (a) industrial growth in the area, and (b) some characteristics of new industrial plants (such as production sector, origin of capital and the reasons for location). Four growth centres with their corresponding industrial labour areas are identified: Valls, the only town where locally and externally promoted industry has induced a change in produaion specialization and also a certain amount of self-generated development; el Vendrell, a service centre where benefits from tourism have stimulated local industry; l'Arboç, a small rural village transformed into an industrial workers' residential centre through the installation of plants by three outside firms; and Montblanc, a town where industrial decentralization has simply resulted in an increase in the number of jobs available.