Die Karten zum Binnenhandel im Nationalatlas der ČSSR

Summary

This paper examines the methods and design issues involved in compiling maps of domestic trade, particularly retail trade, for the National Atlas of Czechoslovakia. The author notes that, unlike most national atlases, the Czechoslovak National Atlas devoted considerable attention to the retail trade network, owing to the fact that state economic control in a socialist country could provide reliable statistical data, especially on retail turnover. In the final version of the atlas (58 plates, 433 maps), domestic trade was placed on Plate 53 in Part V, "Standard of Living," comprising one main map at a scale of 1:1,000,000 (reflecting retail trade in towns with populations over 2,000), three subsidiary maps at 1:4,000,000 (representing catering services, factory canteens, and self-service shops, respectively), and two subsidiary maps at 1:6,000,000 (showing retail turnover and monetary income by district), accompanied by several statistical diagrams. The author discusses in detail the main difficulties encountered during compilation. The 1960 administrative reform reduced the original 103 districts to about 50, with their areas roughly doubling, so that district averages often masked internal geographical differences; meanwhile, the former 412 old judicial districts, which would have better approximated community-scale units, ceased to exist in the administrative division. Since statistical data covered only some rural communities, and because cartographic symbols could not adequately express complex urban characteristics within the constraints of scale, the plan to map every community individually had to be abandoned. The author proposes a classification of settlements, dividing towns into cities and urban-type communities with populations over 4,000, and smaller towns and rural communities with populations over 2,000; the main map thus contains nearly 1,000 symbols, including 221 cities and an additional 80 larger symbols. Since the 1961 census covered only state trade and lacked cooperative trade data, supplementary surveys were also required. Regarding the selection of indicators, the author focuses primarily on turnover (in absolute values and per capita) as the leading indicator, followed by employment figures, and then the ratio between foodstuffs and industrial goods; this information is encoded through the area of symbols, sector divisions, and color. The concluding section further explores several optimization proposals, such as using a second map at 1:1,000,000 to represent communities with supply surpluses or deficits, changing the catering and factory canteen subsidiary maps to a scale of 1:2,000,000 so that they could be shown by city rather than by entire administrative district, and replacing maps of mobile sales routes and school canteens with diagrams. The author points out that, because ten central retail organizations not under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Domestic Trade (such as petrol stations, newsstands, cultural goods stores, bookshops, coal shops, and pharmacies) were excluded, the map content has an omission of approximately 9%; therefore, employment figures and turnover should be increased by about 10% when interpreting the results. Finally, the author concludes that the solution represents a compromise between analytical maps and basic choropleth statistical maps, and expresses the hope that the domestic trade maps in the National Atlas of the German Democratic Republic may be further improved.