Some classical economists put forward the idea of location theory in the18th century. For example, the works published by R. Cantron of Ireland in 1755 and Adam Smith of Britain in 1776 all discuss the influence of freight, distance and raw materials on industrial location. In this paper, industrial location theory is studied systematically in theory. In his paper published in 1868, he put forward that "location" is for "production efficiency" and is restricted by raw materials, labor and capital. The traction of raw materials to the location depends on the reduction of raw material processing and so on. It is W Launhard of Germany who demonstrates the industrial location by mathematical method. He published a series of works in 1882 and 1885, which opened a way for accurate quantification of regionalism. So far, the formulas for determining the minimum transportation location, calculating the total market demand and the relationship between the size of market area and freight rate in industrial location theory are all designed by Launhard.

The founder of modern industrial location theory is German economist A. Weber, who published industrial location theory in 1909, which established a complete theoretical system and put forward rigorous research methods for industrial location theory. However, Weber's industrial location theory is an abstract static location theory with isolated factor analysis. From 65438 to 0924, Frank Fordler, an American economist, put forward the theory of trade boundary location. He believes that the boundary of the trade zone is determined by the sum of the unit production cost and the unit transportation cost of the products in the zone. 1924, Swedish economist Olin began to discuss the whole industrial layout in two books, Trade Theory and Inter-regional Trade and International Trade 1933. From the late 1940s, American scholar Hoover Isard put forward the theory of comprehensive analysis of various cost factors of industrial location. The central problem of these theories is: how to choose the site with the principle of minimum cost and maximum profit, so it belongs to the micro field of industrial location theory. After the Second World War, the theory of studying industrial location from the macro-economic perspective gradually developed, focusing on the growth rate of national gross national product and national income, the characteristics of capital formation, the regional differences in investment rate, unemployment rate and inflation, and the environmental economy and ecological balance. From 1940, German economist A. Liao published "Spatial Order of Economy", which developed into a multi-factor comparative study and formed various schools of dynamic location theory. Famous representatives include Hoover of transportation cost school, Rioch of market school, Isard of regional science school and Prade of behavior school.