Germany, the homeland of particularism, is in many ways also the homeland of regionalism. On all kinds of German regions there exists an absolutely staggering wealth of assorted literature. Towering above this multitudinous evidence of local pride and local patriotism stands the work done by a group of German scholars who labored together on the task of finding in the region, the Raum, the Landschaft, the meaningful unit for historical study. Their work is associated most closely with the name of Hermann Aubin. This paper is intended to introduce to American students of economic history the work and ideas of Hermann Aubin and the men working directly or indirectly under Aubin's inspiration.

A Geographer speaking to the theme of the relationships of his field with that of economic history has many choices. Mine is to suggest ways, and one in particular, in which we may be of service to you. There is much that we need from you, too, but it seems less presumptuous to offer than to ask and it may be more useful to you in the long run to do so.

Perhaps the basic characteristic of this well planned, well managed, orderly session was the fact that it had something for everybody. One suspects, in fact, that archeologists, ichthyologists, astronomers, and other learned specialists could profitably have added their voices. There was, inevitably, some shop talk, but one major result of die effort to relate economic history to economic and historical geography was to elevate much of the discussion to a plane where all kinds of students could talk to one another. Babel became orderly—communications-wise, that is. To the apostles was imparted, for this occasion at least, the grace of a common tongue. A definite though necessarily broad set of conclusions emerged—ones that when translated back into disciplinary idiom promised to be immediately useful to the respective practitioners.

This paper is intended to provoke a general discussion of the nature and uses of historical sociology and its possible relevance to the work of economic historians. It is not an exhaustive treatment of the topic. Terms of reference merely call for a reconsideration of “the penetrative powers of the price system.”

Societies usually do not define explicitly the criteria of the legitimacy of the penetration of the price-system into different areas, and I suppose that, as social scientists, we should be grateful for this omission, since this is the kind of thing that forms the basis of our livelihood.