ABSTRACT
In many ways Illinois is the central state—the crossroads state—of America's heartland. It holds a strong, interdependent, and cooperative relationship with each of the mid western and upper southern states. Illinois is the focal point of trade in the Midwest. Trade decisions, shipping routes, communication and computer networks, interstate pricing structure, media advertising, and business travel most often center on Chicago, its ports, banks, and exchange headquarters. Illinois agriculturalists, aided by excellent transportation systems, ready markets, and dependable spring and summer weather, produce huge amounts of a wide variety of farm products, which places Illinois first or second among all states in the production and/or sale of those foodstuffs and accounts for about 25 percent of the state's exports. Historically Illinois as a region had no natural border, in fact it is an unlikely region generated with considerable political logrolling. But Illinois is now a legal region. The one uniform feature making it a homogeneous region is its legal-political control.
