Research on China’s regional layout of manufacturing factories in the 1930s: a joint discussion on the spatial and scale quality improvement process of industrialization in a late-developing country

According to the revised and supplemented version of Zhongguo gongye diaocha baogao (Report on Survey of Chinese Industry), in 1933, there were 4372 manufacturing factories in China, distributed in 391 counties and cities in 27 provinces and autonomous regions. The manufacturing factories in the coastal areas of the east are showing a trend of “linkage development” (lianpian fazhan), while the manufacturing factories in the central and western provinces and autonomous regions have formed a pattern of “scattered distribution” (sandian fenbu) after accepting the industrial transfer from the east. This is closely related to the resource endowment, transportation conditions, and the depth and breadth of access to international and domestic markets in the eastern region and central and western regions. As opposed to the early industrializing countries in Europe, the “linkage development” of manufacturing in the eastern region and the “scattered distribution” of manufacturing in the central and western regions in the first thirty years of the 20th century were not only driven by the international markets and international trade but also relied on the strong support of a domestic market of exceptional size. The latter in particular became a “safe haven” for domestic manufacturing to cope with the global economic crisis of the 1930s. However, the industrialization process in China, which lacked a unified and strong national government, still faced problems such as the lack of momentum for the launch of the immense domestic market, the spatial gap between the eastern region and central and western regions, the fierce competition between regions, and the incomplete allocation of agricultural and mineral resources, as well as pools of capital and talent.