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American Geographical Society An Economic Geography of China by T. R. Tregear Review by: Theodore Shabad Geographical Review, Vol. 62, No. 1 (Jan., 1972), pp. 146-148 Published by: American Geographical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/214070 . Accessed: 08/05/2014 19:09 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . American Geographical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Geographical Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 19:09:06 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: An Economic Geography of China

American Geographical Society

An Economic Geography of China by T. R. TregearReview by: Theodore ShabadGeographical Review, Vol. 62, No. 1 (Jan., 1972), pp. 146-148Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/214070 .

Accessed: 08/05/2014 19:09

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

American Geographical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toGeographical Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 19:09:06 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: An Economic Geography of China

THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

the author studies more than 1500 cities of io,ooo population or more in 1959. The rank-size rule is tested and shown to be deficient for the country as a whole, because of size and demographic and economic complexities. When applied to regions, this empirical observed regularity is verified to a reasonable degree. Similarly, Harris uses modifications of measures applied in an earlier article on "The Market as a Factor in the Localization of Industry in the United States" (Annals Assn. of Amer. Geogrs., Vol. 44, 1954, pp. 315-348) to study population potential and access to the market in the Soviet Union. Here the analysis clearly shows the lack of full demographic and economic integration, and the measures are perhaps more meaningful when applied to the major economic regions than to the country as a whole.

The detailed analysis of growth trends from 1811 through 1967 would be, one suspects, more rewarding for the Soviet specialist than for the general read- er. For a more circumscribed (in time) and more succinct appraisal, Harris's re- cent article on urban growth from 1959 to 1970 (Geogr. Rev., Vol. 61, 1971, pp.

102-124) is strongly recommended. The chapter on the functions of Soviet cities is in my opinion the weakest in the study. The deficiency is in part attributable to the paucity of the available economic data, which consist of a limited series of percentages (by broad economic groups) of the gainfully employed population for cities with more than 5o,ooo inhabitants in 1959, originally classified and

published by B. S. Khorev. However, one might have wished, even with this de-

ficiency, that Harris had followed to a greater degree some of the principles ex-

pounded by Robert H. T. Smith (Method and Purpose in Functional Town Classification, Annals Assn. of Amer. Geogrs., Vol. 55, 1965, pp. 539-548). Never-

theless, given the overall excellence of the monograph, these objections must in

retrospect be considered minor. To those of us who have long argued with our graduate students that despite

obvious data gaps and the inability to carry on field studies, highly productive research on the Soviet Union is still possible, the Harris study should provide a model of such scholarship and hopefully will act as a stimulus for further research

by both students and senior scholars alike. Even with current restrictions on the

availability of data, the range of feasible and fruitful research topics is still extra-

ordinarily large. In summary, this study represents scholarship of the highest order and is strongly recommended both for the Soviet specialist and for the more

broadly interested scholar.-ALLAN RODGERS

AN ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY OF CHINA. By T. R. TREGEAR. xii and 276 pp.; maps, diagrs., ills., bibliogr., index. American Elsevier Publishing Company, Inc., New York, 1970. $12.75. 1O x 7/4 inches.

This handsome, amply illustrated volume is Tregear's second geography of China within a relatively brief period. His "A Geography of China," which appeared in

1965, took a pronounced historical-geographical approach and devoted only forty- five pages to economic development after 1949, the year of the Communist take- over. In an apparent effort to do more justice to the Communist period, which has been marked by an intensive effort of economic development with varying degrees of success, the author has produced the present volume. In his Intro- duction he describes it as largely an amplification of the economic section of the earlier book.

the author studies more than 1500 cities of io,ooo population or more in 1959. The rank-size rule is tested and shown to be deficient for the country as a whole, because of size and demographic and economic complexities. When applied to regions, this empirical observed regularity is verified to a reasonable degree. Similarly, Harris uses modifications of measures applied in an earlier article on "The Market as a Factor in the Localization of Industry in the United States" (Annals Assn. of Amer. Geogrs., Vol. 44, 1954, pp. 315-348) to study population potential and access to the market in the Soviet Union. Here the analysis clearly shows the lack of full demographic and economic integration, and the measures are perhaps more meaningful when applied to the major economic regions than to the country as a whole.

The detailed analysis of growth trends from 1811 through 1967 would be, one suspects, more rewarding for the Soviet specialist than for the general read- er. For a more circumscribed (in time) and more succinct appraisal, Harris's re- cent article on urban growth from 1959 to 1970 (Geogr. Rev., Vol. 61, 1971, pp.

102-124) is strongly recommended. The chapter on the functions of Soviet cities is in my opinion the weakest in the study. The deficiency is in part attributable to the paucity of the available economic data, which consist of a limited series of percentages (by broad economic groups) of the gainfully employed population for cities with more than 5o,ooo inhabitants in 1959, originally classified and

published by B. S. Khorev. However, one might have wished, even with this de-

ficiency, that Harris had followed to a greater degree some of the principles ex-

pounded by Robert H. T. Smith (Method and Purpose in Functional Town Classification, Annals Assn. of Amer. Geogrs., Vol. 55, 1965, pp. 539-548). Never-

theless, given the overall excellence of the monograph, these objections must in

retrospect be considered minor. To those of us who have long argued with our graduate students that despite

obvious data gaps and the inability to carry on field studies, highly productive research on the Soviet Union is still possible, the Harris study should provide a model of such scholarship and hopefully will act as a stimulus for further research

by both students and senior scholars alike. Even with current restrictions on the

availability of data, the range of feasible and fruitful research topics is still extra-

ordinarily large. In summary, this study represents scholarship of the highest order and is strongly recommended both for the Soviet specialist and for the more

broadly interested scholar.-ALLAN RODGERS

AN ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY OF CHINA. By T. R. TREGEAR. xii and 276 pp.; maps, diagrs., ills., bibliogr., index. American Elsevier Publishing Company, Inc., New York, 1970. $12.75. 1O x 7/4 inches.

This handsome, amply illustrated volume is Tregear's second geography of China within a relatively brief period. His "A Geography of China," which appeared in

1965, took a pronounced historical-geographical approach and devoted only forty- five pages to economic development after 1949, the year of the Communist take- over. In an apparent effort to do more justice to the Communist period, which has been marked by an intensive effort of economic development with varying degrees of success, the author has produced the present volume. In his Intro- duction he describes it as largely an amplification of the economic section of the earlier book.

146 146

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Page 3: An Economic Geography of China

GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEWS 147

Although Tregear alludes to the secrecy about economic information im-

posed by the Chinese authorities in 1960 after the failure of the crash develop- ment program known as the Great Leap Forward, he does not seem to face up squarely to the issue. "Since then [the Great Leap Forward] very few firm fig- ures of production have been published," he writes. "Progress has been reported once more in terms of percentages, of rise or fall on the previous year's achieve-

ments, and these are of little value unless they can be traced back to a firm basic

figure." The fact is that the Chinese have gone far beyond any major nation in modern times in suppressing even the most elementary information about the

population and the economy. Not even in the worst days of blackout on econom- ic data in the Soviet Union, from 1947 to the middle 1950's, was the secrecy so severe. It is true that, as Tregear contends, "by constant day-to-day study of Chi- nese newspapers, magazines and reports, and the careful assessing and sorting of real achievement from mere propaganda, a fairly accurate picture can be drawn." Let us see to what extent the author has been successful.

The book consists of eleven sections. The first two briefly trace the evolu- tion of the Chinese economy from its beginnings through the imperial and na- tionalist periods to Communism and outline the physical geography of China. Three sections are concerned with agriculture: the institutional structure; man-

agement, including flood prevention, irrigation, mechanization, and afforesta- tion; and a regional survey of types of farming. This survey is among the best illustrated parts of the book and makes skillful use of maps and data from re-

gional economic geographies published in China in the late 1950's. After a sec- tion on transportation comes one on power, which deliberately includes a dis- cussion of human power (population) as well as the more conventional sources of energy. A 33-page discussion of industrial development is followed by conclud-

ing sections on mainland foreign trade, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Tregear's success in sifting through scattered news items in the absence of

systematic information can perhaps best be tested in the sections on power and industrial development. Take, for example, his discussion of coal, China's prin- cipal source of fuel and energy. The seven pages on the coal industry include a table of the distribution of coal reserves according to pre-1949 data (there has been no later detailed reserve information), a map of China's coalfields, without identification of producing centers, and two regional maps of Northwest China and Manchuria, showing mining centers. No attempt is made to review the

spatial expansion of the coal industry, though the author mentions dispersion into many new regions from old centers in North China and Manchuria. Tregear shows awareness of the new mines of Pingtingshan in Honan, which serve as a basic coking-coal source for the Wuhan iron and steel plant. But he says nothing about other coal centers that arose in the early 1960's; for example, the Hwaipei basin of northern Anhwei, where the new coal city of Suiki was formally set up in 1961, or the coking-coal basin of Shihtsuishan on the border between Ningsia Hui Autonomous Region and Inner Mongolia, where three new coal-mining cities were inaugurated in 1960-1961. Similarly serious gaps exist in the treatment of the iron and steel industry. The text totally ignores the major iron and steel

plant of Shihkingshan, in a western suburb of Peking, though it is located (some- what out of place) on an accompanying map of steel centers. In the discussion of oil, the so-called Taching (Great Celebration) field of Manchuria is said to lie

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Page 4: An Economic Geography of China

THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

"probably" in the Tsitsihar-Harbin region. Although the field, developed after the imposition of secrecy in 1960, has never been officially located by the Chinese, it has been pinpointed by Western analysts far more precisely than Tregear suggests, namely in the Anta area, halfway between Harbin and Tsitsihar. This reviewer gains the impression that the author has extracted news items from the daily press releases of the New China News Agency during the period 1964- 1967 (most frequently cited in the references) but has virtually ignored the im-

portant period between 1960 and 1964, when significant facts were also revealed

despite the embargo on systematic information. In addition to the serious gaps in reporting China's economic development,

the volume is sadly marred by errors in place names. Chinese place names are

complex enough, and one would have wished for particular care in rendering them. In a listing of leading industrial centers, the Chinese name of Canton is

given as Hwangchow; it should be Kwangchow. Liaotung and Liaoning are used almost interchangeably, whereas Liaotung should be employed only in reference to the eastern part of Liaoning Province. The carelessness carries over into the rather incomplete index, where, for example, an entry for Yumenkow refers the reader both to Yumenkow, a Shansi village on the Yellow River, and to Yumen, the petroleum center of Kansu. Tregear, who spent many years in China in the 1920's and late 1940's, has a sure grasp of the historical background and first- hand knowledge of Chinese reality before the Communist take-over. It is un- fortunate that he has not applied his rich experience more effectively to recent

developments.-THEODORE SHABAD

148

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