Business and Territories in North-Western Europe, from the Middle of the XVIIIth Century to the End of the XXth Century General Introduction

As is the case with the other human sciences, economic history's interest in the concept of space is growing, and prompts historians to develop a reflection through the notions of scale and territory. The activity of the EMERENO research program consists essentially in collecting and promoting comparative studies on the relations between business concerns and territories in that part of Continental Europe that stretches from the shores of the North Sea to the Ruhr Basin, first during the widespread movement of industrialization, then through the equally widespread movement of de-industrialization that marked profoundly these regions. The contributions that are collected here strive at analyzing these relations. They illustrate, through various examples, how business concerns belonging to diverse manufacturing sectors or services contribute to shaping the space. They insist on the cross-border specificity of these regions that are crisscrossed with state borders that shifted over time and had an often stimulating effect on entrepreneurial activity. Finally, through a methodological reflection around the notion of pilot region and the contribution of a neighbouring discipline, i.e. sociology, the contributions intend to stimulate and expand the reflections developed around these issues by historians.