ABSTRACT
A link between the idea of a force-field, in the sense of a field of attraction or a gravitational nucleus, with the spatial siting of industries and their development in time, is to be found in Andreas Predohl and Fran~ois Perroux. 2 Both these theorists of international economics use the field-analogy in the sense of the 'open field', and apply it particularly to developments which overstep the bounds of national economics. According to Predohl, the most important gravitational centres for international economic development are Europe, the U.S.A., and Soviet Russia, or rather the industrial agglomeration-areas in those countries; one subsidiary centre is Japan, and whether others are developing is still an open question at present. With this in mind Predohl's students have been investigating (besides Japan) Australia, Brazil, and the South African Republic. At the same time Perroux has given close attention to oilcountries such as Algeria and Iran; this is apart from his fundamental inquiry concerning the bifurcation of the world and the possibility of its dissolving. Regarding the intellectual procedure, a lot may be
learnt from Perroux' assessment of developments in Iran: the petroleum industry in Abadan did not constitute any gravitational nucleus, so long as it was a mere appendage of foreign oil-companies and did not form a constituent part of the Persian national economy. It was only when other industries were set up in the country, and when trade-routes were established as a result, that the causal nexus began to operate and produce further economic development.3
