Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/29

AltT OF ECON'OMIC DEVI?LOPME1VII ? IO predominantly obey the law of diminishing retu?rns or the law of increasing returns. Industries which obey the former are agriculture and all extractive industries such as mining, forestry, fisheries, etc. industries may become predominantly law of increasing returns at any particular place or time, but such an event could not be anticipated, and the only safe plan is to assume that the law of diminishing returns is predominant. In regard to the manufacturing industries the reverse is the case. It must generally be assumed thst the law of increasing returns is predomi- nant except when there supposing the contrary. Any of these subjeer to the must assume agriculture and the extractive industries to be &lw&ys tending to spre&d ?hemselves &s widely as possible over ?he country, ?he m&nuf&o?uring industries tend to develop wi?h inore&sing success &? partioul&r centres where ?hey h&ve gsined & s?&r?. This is ?he ?eason for mos? of ?he &pp&renfiy peouli&r fae?s tel&ting to ?he loealiz&fion of modern industries, t.g., ?he fine octton spinning industry in Lsno&shire, ?he br&ss bedstead industry in Birmingh&m &nd ?he iute industry in ?aloutta. In planning the economic development of any territory, therefore, it is most important that no rash attempts should be made to establish new centres of manufacturing industry. The balance of advantages is always likely to be on the side of an existing centre of manufacturing industry, so long as it is within a distance which is reasonable with regard to the freight rates of the kinds of goods there manufactured. Some special conditions, as in regard to supply of raw mate- rials relatively to the direorions of streams of trade, or an exceptional convergence of through r?tilway routes, or specially cheap power, should be present to justify the anticipation that a given point will be is any particular reason for The result is that whilst we