ABSTRACT
In the preceding chapters the value and advantages to be derived from industrialization have been implied. It is appropriate now to consider more precisely the reasons why under-developed lands, many with apparently the most primitive economies, desire so earnestly to further manufacturing industry. It is clear that a whole range of reasons may be cited, dependent upon the individual circumstances of the countries, but broadly we may cite three conditions that under-developed lands wish to ameliorate, and go on to consider just why the development of manufacturing industry is regarded as the best means of such amelioration. The three customary objects of industrialization policies are to provide work for growing populations (and in some cases for already under-employed agricultural populations), to raise the standard of living by increasing the per capita net national income and, often, to improve balance of payment situations. Various other reasons have sometimes been cited or imputed in particular cases, one especially being the desire for national prestige which an industrial economy could give over fellow primary producers. Yugoslavia, Argentina and Egypt have been mentioned in such a context and East Germany under her first two Five Year Plans. There is indeed a connection between the political revolution and the social and economic ones they heralded; by many it is held that the one is the essential precursor of the other. The danger of industrialization being pursued purely for nationalistic ends is that such policies may lead to autarky and a development 63programme based upon uneconomic desires for industrial self-sufficiency, rather than a furthering of primary production where comparative advantage is held over competitors and the development of those industries most likely to have good economic bases.
