On Small Towns Of Britain In Industrial Age

As the first county in world's process of industrialization and urbanization, Britain has the character of endogenous advance on urban development's power, pattern, form and type. Considered as the composing part of British urbanization and urbanizing development, small towns' economic and social structure had profound changes in the period of industrialization. In the historical development's point of view, urbanization and industrialization process went along nearly in-phase, which led into economy and society's double transformation of British urban and rural world. This change was mainly represented as population flow from countryside to urban world, i.e. the process of urbanization on population. Britain has different boundaries during different periods, from the angle of economic patterns and developmental level, Britain in this dissertation was mainly including England and Wales.Although small towns obtained unprecedented development in the process of urbanization, in the angle of contrastive former and latter, the proportion and status of small towns in urban system were digressive in the era of British industrialization. As the ligament between urban and rural world, small towns were affected by urban-rural background regional situation, and presented the character of 'absolute rise in quantity and relative fall in status'. Take 1920s as the boundary, small towns' quantity, size and status had distinct increase in the prophase, the upper small towns kept definite increase on quantity and population, but their position in urban system showed evidently downtrend. In the viewpoint of classified function, most of the flourishing small towns in industrial period were supported by newly-rising industrial and commercial industry, transportation industry and cultural leisure industry, while those stagnating and declining small towns were mostly located in traditional farm belt. Whether the differentiation of size or function of small towns, both was the result of urban system and urban function expanding led by large cities, small towns in urban developing situation were more and more dependent and marginal.Small towns depending on industry and commerce, transportation and recreation made up of British small towns' three dominating patterns, which were the result of functional differentiation and manufacturing specializing as well as large cities' functional expanding on the condition of capitalist marketing economy. Industrial and commercial prosperity was the most direct embodiment of industrialization, small industrial and commercial towns were just arisen in the background of industrial and commercial flourishing. On the characteristic of them, small industrial and commercial towns both were mainly in the field of textile manufacture and trade, had intimate connection with countryside. In the point of development trend, the small industrial and commercial towns' proportion was largest, and the two kind of small towns were facing the most serious competing pressure. Small towns supported by transporting industry developed on the base of carrying trades' flourishing, which mainly included small turnpike towns, small port towns and small rail towns according to early or late ranking. The three kinds of small transporting towns were descending in turn. From turnpike carriages to watercrafts to rail locomotives, transporting was more and more convenient, but the impetus of small towns received from that was less and less. Small recreational towns' rise depended on the effect of industrialization and urbanization, mainly included small spa towns featured by mineral springs and small coastal towns featured by sea's scene. Nobility and middle class were the major impetus and actor of small recreational towns, subsequently the working class participated. Small spa tows and small coastal towns were approximately prosperous in turn; the two kinds of small recreational towns reflected industrial and multivariant trend of British cultural recreation in the Industrial Age.Overall, as the component part of British urban system in the era of industrialization, small towns' quantity and size both were increasing, the spatial distribution of small towns was essentially identical with the whole urban system. By the promotion of capitalist manufacturing specialization and urban function's multielement, small towns principally made up of three special patterns, i.e. small industrial and commercial towns, small transporting towns and small recreational towns. Specializing types of small towns were not only the embodiment of capitalist productive specialization about urban development, but also the result of urban function's extensive expanding and multiple development of large cities.