Un centre de décision économique : Le Nord-Est des Etats-Unis

• Published in: Travaux de l'Institut Géographique de Reims
• Main Author: Gérard Dorel
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: French
• Published: Reims : Institut de géographie de Reims 1970
• Subjects: North East Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.persee.fr/doc/tigr_0048-7163_1970_num_3_1_921; https://doi.org/10.3406/tigr.1970.921

The economy of the United States is characterized today by the extraordinary concentration of industrial activities in the hands of a few hundred large corporations or companies, whose affairs are not limited to American territory but extend to the entire freetrade world. Consequently, the geographer is interested in knowing where the registered offices of these giant companies are concentrated : the towns which shelter them appear as the driving forces of wotld economy. The North-East Atlantic towns, and New York in particular, had the registered offices of 225 out of the 500 leading American industrial firms. The first part of the article attempts to show the North-East Atlantic region not only as the foremost industrial region of the United States but also, and above all, as the most important centre of economic direction. The analysis of a few companies gives an idea of their power and their world influence. The second part tries to specify some of the reasons for the concentration in this region of such power and directional ability. The university infrastructure and scientific research, the banking infrastructure, the stock-exchange, and the development of combines ("conglomérats") are the critical factors today. Dorel Gérard. Un centre de décision économique : Le Nord-Est des Etats-Unis. In: Travaux de l'Institut Géographique de Reims, n°3, 1970. Mélanges. pp. 11-36.