Structural and locational evolution of industry in Southern Europe

S European Industry is characterized by the importance of certain branches and by plant size. Traditional branches of consumer goods are dominated by the national bourgeoisie, intermediate goods by oligopolistic (state) enterprises, modern consumer and capital goods by multinational corporations. Industrialization was retarded for various social and physical reasons. For the locational pattern some factors had specific importance (diffusion, shipping traffic for supplies, deficient infrastructure, urbanisation economies, social structure). Economic nationalism and interventionism from the thirties to the late fifties had structural and locational effects. Subsequent opening led to important foreign investment with diverse locational consequences: the large majority of the market-orientated companies concentrated on big cities and induced industrial suburbanisation. Export-orientated plants, relatively often in Portugal, also decided for rural areas and provincial towns. Regional industrial policy which began weakly with fiscal allowances in the fifties and soon adopted the growth pole idea led to results remaining only far beyond expectations. International economic crisis has heavily stroken the countries which turned out to be very dependant.