Totnes & District – A Traditional Local Market Town Economy
Local market town economies have been evolving since human settlements began and were thriving, relatively self-contained local systems until cheap energy stepped in, initially with coal and the steam engine fuelling the 18thcentury Industrial Revolution, and latterly the age of oil fuelling the industrialisation of agriculture, and the rise of consumerism, which has been made possible by the evolution of vast, sprawling, global distribution networks, since the 1960’s. Local trading networks have been decimated as large supermarket chains operating across national and international markets set up deals with local producers, selling through large retail outlets which could out-price local shops. Subsidies to compensate farmers for reduced farm gate prices and tax incentives to encourage companies to bring employment to regions needing jobs have simply complicated matters further as they do not generally relate to the geographic resource base and have distorted farming practices away from responding to local needs.
The economy of Totnes and District was, in effect, a market town trading with its rural hinterland. For centuries the local economy was labour-intensive and based on a wide diversity of small local producers, craft workers and consumers trading and bartering local products and services. Devon’s traditional resource base has been its highly productive farmland, more recently this has also become a popular tourist attraction. Local farms, skilled workers and producers successfully managed local resources, a relatively resilient local economy, historically trading outside of the area and supplementing local products with imports of luxury goods. By the 17th century, Totnes was one of the wealthiest towns in England, such that royal visits were commonplace. As Dewi Lewis puts it in ‘Shutting Up Shop – The Decline of the Traditional Small Shop’, “all the shops were incredibly well cared for and cherished and there was a real connection between the shop’s identity and the people who ran them.”
As with other local market economies in the UK, Totnes has seen dramatic changes in the past fifty years, globalisation has had its impact locally; of the seventeen villages in Totnes’ rural hinterland, just nine currently have a local shop or post office. Many small businesses are operating on very small profit margins; just six months into the current recession, Totnes’ farmers market closed and several small and medium sized businesses have since followed.
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