Introduction
A study by a municipal on the distribution of all companies classified in each enterprise industry was minerals 0.4 %; selected services, 33.3%; retail trade, 36.7%; wholesale trade, 6.5 %; manufacturing, 5.3%; and construction, 17.8 %. Representation of this distribution in a pie chart gives:
From figure one it is possible to quickly observe that the town represented is a town at a growth stage and that is why construction companies constitute of 17.8%. Perhaps the construction companies are involved in building of infrastructure such roads, hospitals, schools and recreational centers common to towns. Another possibility could be that the town is going through renovations exercises due to expansion. However, with regard to the percentage occupied by manufacturing companies which make up of only 5.3 %, it can be assumed that the town is still a young town therefore the issues of renovation can be ruled out. The dynamics experienced by towns is that they have to be centers either for administration, commercial or communication.
Analysis of Town
Administrative towns are usually built by government or local authorities with the aim of establishing a central and accessible point from which the governance and the development of the surrounding areas can be supervised.
Commercial towns on the other hand just spring up mostly due to their position geographically, their topography and their accessibility. For instance a commercial town may spring up between two regions that constantly trade with each other. The regions may be countries, provinces or larger cities. As persons from the two regions exchange goods, it becomes inevitable to establish a central point from where both groups can meet. The established point is always a point that is accessible to both groups. Therefore, both groups can determine days when they can meet to exchange goods. After sometime the constant going back and forth from the center becomes tedious and some groups can begin settling in the center so that whoever wishes to buy goods and services can go to the center. Eventually, traders begin to flock the center and a town is born. The government may soon discover the growth of the town and will therefore seek to regulate this growth and to provide guidelines to developers (Singh, p. 95).
Communication towns also spring up from points deemed as being accessible for communication. Such towns include towns established at sea ports, points of intersection of major railway lines or major roads or near airports. Such towns spring up from the need to create amenities to serve persons or groups of persons that meet at these strategic points (Sigh, p. 83).
According to Figure 1, the town represented is a commercial center. This is evidenced by the fact that the greatest percentage of companies is occupied by retailers. Retail trade is all about obtaining goods from wholesalers or directly from manufacturers and selling them directly to consumers. The high percentage of retailers implies that consumers are also high in number. Consumers can be persons who are just passing by the town or are permanent residents. However, in this case most of the consumers are permanent residents in the town. If the consumers were just passing by, selected services would not have been occupying a large percentage of 33, because there would have been no need. The low percentage of wholesalers means that most goods sold by retailers are manufactured within this town, which makes it easier for retailers to obtain them directly from manufacturers. Wholesalers act as links between consumers and manufacturers and their major responsibility is to obtain goods from manufacturers and re-package the goods into quantities that retailers can sell to consumers. Wholesale trade is a common occurrence with household goods that need to be re-packaged and distributed in convenient quantities. Most of these household goods are consumables that consumers purchase with regard to the number of persons within families. For instance, a commodity like milk is purchased with regard to the amount consumed say per week. It will therefore be the responsibility of the wholesaler to obtain the milk from the processing company and then put them in quantities that will be convenient for both large and small families. The fact that this town has a very low percentage of wholesalers means that most manufacturers in the region do not produce consumable goods. The implication is that this town can be an agricultural town. However, the agriculture is also small scale which allows most consumers to produce most the products they need from their farms. The other explanation is that the agriculture can be commercial but farmers still have portions of their farms under subsistence agriculture. Therefore, the goods that people do not produce form their own farms they obtain from the 5% manufacturing industries. Although, manufacturing industries occupy 5%, not the whole of this percentage produces consumable goods. This is because there is evidence from figure 1 that the town. Although mining accounts for only 0.4%, of the total industries, the minerals available the quantity and quality of minerals available have economical value, otherwise the industry would have been absent. This means that out of the 5% occupied by manufacturing industries, there is a high probability that 0.5 % of manufacturing industries deal with minerals. A significant percentage of the manufacturing industries may also be dealing with production of farm equipments and non-consumables. It is from this point of view that the assumption that the town is an agricultural town is obtained. From Figure 1 it can also be observed that the second largest industry in the town is the service industry. The service industry can be occupied by companies that offer services such as legal services, schools, hospitals, hotels and restaurants and others. The large number of service industry implies that the population of the town is significantly huge. This substantiates the earlier observation made due to the huge percentage occupied by the retail industry. Population is usually contributed by both natives and immigrants from other region. The high number implies that the town might be having an influx of immigrants. Furthermore, a conclusion can be drawn that the town enjoys a good supply of social amenities such as schools and hospitals. This is because people can only be willing to stay or move to a place where they can obtain social amenities.
Conclusion
From a business perspective it can be assumed that the business in the town is lucrative. Being that the town is an agricultural town, it therefore implies that whatever the town produces it sells the surplus and perhaps this is the major source of income. Income is also contributed significantly from the retail business and the mining industry.
Work Cited
Singh, Kumar. Origin and Growth of Towns. Rutgders, 1990.