Secondary activities and modern manufacturing

Secondary activities add value to natural resources by transforming them into more useful products. Cotton in the boll has little use, but spun into yarn and woven into cloth it becomes far more valuable; iron ore cannot be used directly, but turned into steel it becomes the basis of countless products.

Secondary activities include manufacturing, processing and construction (building infrastructure).

The word manufacturing literally means 'making by hand', but today it includes goods made by machines. Modern large-scale manufacturing has these features:

• specialised skills, with each worker doing a particular task, and mass production of standardised parts and goods (as opposed to the craft method, which makes only a few pieces to order);
• mechanisation (machines doing the work) and automation (machines that control themselves);
• constant technological innovation, through research and development;
• large organisations, with complex management;
• vast capital.

Manufacturing is very concentrated. The world's major manufacturing regions cover less than 10% of its land area, yet they are the centres of economic and political power.