From raw materials to where the industry happens. Patterns of industry location in the Portuguese cork manufacture, 1880–1980

Abstract

This article analyses the relocation processes that the Portuguese cork industry underwent between the 1880s and 1980s. Beyond the historical-geographical aspects of the cork industry, its importance lies in the fact that it involves a paradigmatic case of a traditional industrial sector of vital importance for a developing country. Such was the case of Portugal in the late nineteenth century, where the change of location of the industry coincided with the country’s rise to become the world’s leading power in the cork industry. The article concludes that the factors that made certain regions more attractive for the development of the cork industry compared to others changed over the course of a few decades. There were two industrial relocations in a century as companies adapted to technical and organizational changes; this geographical reorganization was therefore due to a variety of factors and cannot be fully explained by just one theory of industrial location.