National Economy of Scotland

 

Scotland due to its physical features which influence the development of the economy is divided into 3 parts: the Scottish Highlands which occupy the vast, complicated mountain area in the northern part of the country, the Southern Uplands which cover the smaller and lower hill area in the south and the Central Lowlands occupying the wide rift valley which separates the other two areas. The first two areas are sparsely populated, while the Central Lowlands occupying about 15 per cent of Scotland’s territory contain about 80 per cent of its people. The Central Lowlands best situated for population settlement are the industrial heart of Scotland, while the Glasgow region is dominating focus of industrial activity. Here the opening up the Central Coalfield and the growth of Glasgow as a port provided a strong industrial base and, by the end of the nineteenth century, the area was one of the major industrial centers of Britain, with important coal, steel, shipbuilding and engineering industries. The twentieth century has seen increasing problems in these industries and there has been a movement of population from the old established areas to new centers.

The iron industry grew up on the coalfield to the south-east of Glasgow where coking coal and iron ore occurred. These iron ores were quickly exhausted and the industry came to depend on ores imported through Glasgow. At present steelmaking is concentrated at two large integrated plants situated at Motherwell to the south-east of Glasgow. However, the future of these works is no longer certain.

Scottish steel has long been used chiefly by the heavy industries of the Glasgow area, where shipbuilding has been paramount. For a time Clydeside was the most famous shipbuilding district in the world. Shipyards extended along both banks of the Clyde estuary for about 30 km.

Clydeside also benefited by having pioneered the building of ships. But in the 1970s, further beset by the economic crisis of capitalism, Clydeside lost its place as the leading shipbuilding area in Britain.

Glasgow (715,600) is Scotland’s most populous city and third largest in the British Isles. It stands at the lowest bridging point on the river Clyde and has thus become the outstanding market centre for western Scotland, and commercially and industrially dominates Clyde side.

As a seaport it enjoyed a Savourable position for trade with North America. Engineering has not shrunk to the same extent as coal mining and shipbuilding. But nowadays practically as many workers are in the service industries as in Manufacturing. Of the latter, textile and clothing production has long been important, and carpets are among the woolen goods. Food products, furniture and office equipment are also manufactured. Extremely important in Scotland’s export trade is whisky produced in Highland distilleries.

Edinburgh (438,700) has been long recognized as the capital of Scotland, in spite of being second in size to Glasgow. The latter began to overtake Edinburgh in population with the Industrial Revolution. While Glasgow led the development of heavy industry, Edinburgh remained the country’s political and cultural centre. Picturesque surface features and the annual International Festival in the late summer have made Edinburgh the outstanding centre of tourism in Scotland. It also has a number of important industries: textile manufacture, brewing, flour milling, and biscuit manufacture. Other imports are timber and dairy produce. Paper manufacture, printing and publishing are important because Edinburgh is a university city, closely associated with education, as well as administration, banking and insurance.

North Sea oil has affected life on the Orkneys and the Shetland Islands. Oil terminals have been constructed on Orkney (Flotta) and Shetland (Sullom Voe), receiving petroleum by pipeline from the North Sea fields. This has involved the population into new occupations connected with oil production.

The natural conditions of Scotland have extensively affected agriculture. The Highlands are among the most severe in Britain and it has had important effects on the pattern of farming. This s particularly true of the traditional type of farming-clothing-which is still practiced in the remote areas of northern and western Scotland and on the surrounding islands. In the eastern part of the region, where there are Lowland with richer soils than the Highlands a much grater proportion of the land is tilled. Farming here is best described as mixed. On the arable land oats, turnips, and potatoes are cultivated and part of the area is improved grassland in rotation. Barley is often grown here for the production of malt whisky.

The Central Lowlands are best situated for farming. Types of farming change from west to east under the influence of climate. The western lowlands have a great deal of land under grass, and form Scotland’s main dairy farming area.

Wales.

Wales is the predominantly mountainous country, with large areas of land over six hundred meters in height, and for the past two hundred years, these upland areas have lost population. South Wales is the main area of industrial activity, because it was coal that first gave life to industry. The nineteenth century saw a tenfold increase in the population of the South west coalfield region. Large-scale expunction of coal mining did not take lace till the second half of the nineteenth century. Merchant navies, railways and works all required increasing amounts of coal. On the coast Cardiff and Newport handled the coal that came down by the valley railway.

By the 1930s coal exports were already declining, causing economic depression and unemployment. The overseas trade disappeared in World War II, and only partly and temporally revived in place time. Important consumers were now turning to oil, and the reduced demand led to the closure to many pits and again unemployment. From about 200 pits as the end of World War II the number was reduced to less that 50. The number of working miners fell by about two-thirds and the industry lost its position as the leading employer in South Wales. All this has created immense social problems, particularly in the valleys where the dependence on mining valleys is the Rhonadda, its population, however, is steadily falling due to coal production decline.

Like coal mining, the iron and steel industry is long established in the south. For much of the nineteenth century South Wales was the leading producer in Britain. The prosperity was based on the availability of basic raw materials-coking coal and iron ore. As the iron ores were exhausted, and foreign ores had to be imported, the iron and steel works were moved to sites near the coast. The major integrated steel works is situated at Port Talbot, where a new harbor was opened in 1970 to accommodate the largest ore carries. However, by the end of the 1970s the steel industry faced widespread recession and steel production was drastically reduced.

Other material industry in south Wales, notably the manufacture of tinplate is in the Swansea district, South Wales is an important centre for the manufacture of non-ferrous metals. Its main centre is Swansea. Industrial recession has also affected this industry. Efforts have been made to attract new engineering industries; however, they haven’t solved the serious social problems caused be the decline of the traditional industries.

Cardiff (280,000) is the largest city in industrial South Wales, and is also the national capital and main business centre. It rose to importance with the coal mining and iron industries. Today the cargoes it handles are mainly imports, to be distributed throughout south Wales. On imported grain flour milling developed as well as other food processing. Swansea and Newport shared coal exports too. However, later they suffered the same decline like Cardiff. The main port of Wales today is Milford Hayed (situated in the very southwest) because of its oil tanker traffic. It is one of the leading oil terminals of Britain. Refineries grew up on opposite shores and Milford Hayed became an important refining centre. A pipeline takes petroleum to a refinery near Swansea.

North Wales is mountainous. In the north-west is the district known as Snowdonia, where the Snowdonia National Park is situated and where the Snowdon the highest peak in Wales (1085m), towers over its mountain group. Sheep rising is the main occupation of the population.

In addition to the river valleys and the narrow coastal plain, North Wales has some Lowland areas, including those on the island of Anglesey. At these lower altitudes the climate is much more favorable. Here the farmers concentrate on cattle rather than sheep. They raise both dairy and buff cattle, the former providing milk for English industrial districts as well as the towns of North Wales. Oats root crops are drown here mainly for fodder.

Despite the small coalfield, industrialization has had little effect on North Wales. Recently two nuclear power stations were built: one in V, the other in Anglesey. They both supply power to the national grid system. Tourism is mainly concentrated in the northern coastal strip. On holy Island, which lies off the coast of Anglesey, is Holyhead, terminus of road and rail routs from London and chief ferry port, for services to the Irish public-via Dun Loaghaire (pronounced dunleary), near Dublin.

In general, Wales, which is the national outlying region of GB, faces serious social and economic problems, caused by the depression of its traditional industries. Unemployment remains high and the future of many miners and workers remains very uncertain.

Lecture 6

1. Geographical position of the USA

2. Six main regions

a. The Northeast

b. The central basin

c. The Southeast

d. The Great Plains

e. The mountains and Deserts,

f. The Coast Valleys

3. The rivers

4. The nation of immigrants

5. Why they came, why they come