Branco, Amélia2025-04-102025-04-102016Branco, Amélia … [et al.] .(2016). “Cambios en la localización de la industria corchera mundial. Una perspectiva histórica”. Revista de Estudios Regionales, Nº 106: pp. 55-780213-7585http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/100131Este trabajo aborda, de una forma descriptiva, los cambios de localización de la industria corchera desde mediados del siglo XVIII hasta la actualidad, proponiéndose los factores que, en nuestro criterio, están detrás de ellos. Lejos de procurar un análisis cuantitativo de las distintas facetas del negocio o de plantear una metodología novedosa, el artículo se presenta como un ensayo de historia económica que, a partir del conocimiento ya existente sobre la evolución del negocio en el último siglo, puede servir para entender mejor los cambios que se están produciendo en la actualidad en el mismo, y de esta forma ser útil para percibir mejor los factores de localización que pueden estar detrás de ellos."Changes in world cork industry location. An historical perspective" - Abstract:This work stems from the conviction that knowledge of history can serve to propose solutions to the problems facing today. It may even be useful to anticipate these problems, and thus to take proactive decisions that minimize the negative effects of them. It discusses, in a descriptive way, changes in location of the cork industry since the mid-eighteenth century to the present, proposing the factors that, in our opinion, are behind them. Far from attempting a quantitative analysis of the various facets of the business or raise a new methodology, the paper is presented as an economic history essay from the existing knowledge on the evolution of business in the last century. It can serve to better understand the changes that are occurring today in it, and thus be useful to better perceive the location factors that may be behind them. As said, besides being a study of regional economics, this research is presented as an economic history study because of its long-term perspective, since it is analyzed the extended period of time between the birth of modern cork industry, in the mid-seventeenth century, and today, fragmenting this chronological analysis in 4 homogeneous stages in terms of cork manufacturing location. These stages correspond to the initial development of the cork industry in France until the first third of the eighteenth century, the first one; with the expansion of manufacturing to Catalonia and other parts of Europe between the 1730s and late nineteenth century, the second stage, in which there was an indisputable absolute hegemony of Catalonia in the world cork business, despite the high degree of internationalization acquired for this one in this period; with the rise of cork manufacturing (especially of agglomerated cork) in the not cork-producing developed countries in the first third of the twentieth century, the third one, in which the Catalan hegemony in the business ceased to be absolute to pass to be relative; and finally, with the rapid rise of Portugal to the position of cork industry leadership in the world since the 1930s until today, coinciding with the decline of manufacturing in Spain after the Spanish civil war, and with the abandonment of the manufacture of this commodity in the not cork-producing developed countries in the second half of the twentieth century. From a methodological point of view, this research has an emphasized qualitative character based, on the one hand, on the extensive literature that has analyzed in recent years the secular trends of world cork business from its birth until today, and on the other one, in the fruitful theoretical framework of industrial location. This is the reason why in the paper we part from a review of the contributions existing from the classical theory of industrial location up to the most recent developments concerning to the processes of industrial relocation, passing through the contributions derived from the new economic geography. With this framework we aim to give a theoretical support, but also empirical, to the explanation of the changes occurred in the location of the world cork industry, which are presented using the known push-pull method, consisting in highlighting the push and pull factors associated with the different locations, which finally determine the location decisions of firms. With regard to the above, and in addition to give a great explanatory importance to the classic location factors (especially to the proximity to raw materials and major centers of consumption, as a way to minimize transport costs, and also to the existence of low wages), they are also consider other factors such as the existence of an industrial or commercial tradition in the region; the availability of know how; the institutional framework associated with each location; the economic and political situation existing at any time and place; the existence of industrial clusters or DI able to attract industries and boost manufacturing; the availability of cheap and abundant workforce compared to other regions; the existence of leading companies in the sector; the access to technology; and the casual choice. Related to the access to technology, we find that, in a business traditionally characterized by low technological intensity, as cork one, the few radical innovations that have occurred eventually always have led to a new stage from the point of view of industrial location. It was what happened, for example, with the discovery of agglomerated cork in the early twentieth century (which expanded production worldwide), or with the expansion of synthetic substitutes for cork that occurred from the second world war onwards (which shook the world cork geography restricting it, again, to the old continent).spaCorchoIndustria corcheraLocalización industrialPortugalSpainEspañaCorkCork IndustryIndustrial LocationPortugalSpainjournal article