Environment and Planning A, 1983, volume 15, pages 105-122 Capital accumulation and chemicals production in Western Europe in the postwar period* R Hudson Department of Geography, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE, England Received 6 November 1981, in revised form 5 January 1982 Abstract. In the years following 1945, especially those preceding the 1970s, the expansion of chemicals production became a central element in the more general growth of the capitalist world economy. Much of this growth took place in Western Europe, and was increasingly associated with the development of a small number of major maritime industrial complexes. Although the growth of the chemicals sector slowed down after 1973, the tendency of a locational concentration of new investment was maintained, indeed enhanced. The main explanatory thesis around which the paper is structured is that the changes in chemicals production (structural and technical, as well as locational) are most appropriately understood in relation to the dynamics of the process of capital accumulation. This in turn requires an analysis on two levels. The first of these is that of 'capital in general', involving an analysis of accumulation in terms of exchange value, of the imperatives that drive this process and the restructuring of capital that these of necessity bring about. The second involves examining the competitive strategies of 'many capitals' through which this restructuring is brought about and, related to these, the role of the state. The paper concludes by suggesting some possible future developments within chemicals production. 1 Introduction It is salutory to recall the words of R G J Telfer, then Chairman of Imperial Chemicals Industries (ICI) Petrochemicals Division, that in the United Kingdom in 1945 "petrochemicals as we now know them were very much in their infancy" {Newcastle Journal, 22 June 1976, page xviii; see also Chapman, 1974; Warren, 1971). For in the years following 1945, and particularly those preceding the 1970s, the expansion of chemicals production—not only of petrochemicals and basic organies, but also of basic inorganics—became a central element in the more general growth of the capitalist world economy (1) . Western Europe and, more specifically, the EEC was the location of much of this growth. Indeed, growth was concentrated especially in terms of new investment in basic (particularly organics) chemicals production on a small number of coastal locations within Europe. Such trends have been observable in other industries, and, most notably, in metals production (aluminium, iron and steel—for example, see Bleitrach and Chenu, 1982; Bomer, 1977; Damette, 1980). However, although these industries frequently occupy locations adjacent to plants producing chemicals, the processes underlying locational change have differed from those in chemicals. In particular, the growth of chemicals production has been accompanied by more marked qualitative changes in technology as well as in location. t This is a revised version of a paper presented to the Twenty-first Annual Congress of the European Regional Science Association, Barcelona, 25-28 August, 1981. '*' Basic chemicals may be divided into heavy inorganics and heavy organics. Heavy inorganic chemicals comprise industrial chemicals produced from elements such as nitrogen, hydrogen, potassium and chlorine, the principal products including ammonia, sulphuric acid, and fertilisers. Heavy organic chemicals are those industrial chemicals produced from substances containing carbon, including coal and petroleum, typical products being ethylene, benzene, and propylene. That part of heavy organic chemicals produced from petroleum is also referred to as petrochemicals—one of the decisive trends within the postwar period has been the growing significance of petrochemicals within organic chemicals.