78 TRANSPORTATION 



material." x Distinguished from this economic geography is the 

 " geography of communication," about whose extent, limits, and 

 methods the opinions still differ at present. There are two tend- 

 encies, opposed to each other. First, the applied or practical 

 geography of communication which starts from the given facts in 

 order to investigate their influences upon the economic, intellectual, 

 or political life, and in order to deduce therefrom the transformation 

 and improvement of the conditions of communication. It is evident 

 how closely this way of treating transportation must touch to the 

 political economic treatment. 



The second tendency aims at the theoretical investigation of the 

 causes of the conditions of communication; here, again, a twofold 

 conception of its tasks can be formed: The investigation of the 

 influence of nature upon the actual communication and the explana- 

 tion of its natural causes; and an historical consideration which 

 pursues the diminution of distances of time and space in the histor- 

 ical development. According to Hettner's conception, it has to 

 show how in each space on earth and upon the surface of the earth 

 the system of communication taken as a whole is connected with 

 human settlements and places of production, and how it is dependent 

 upon the distribution of land and sea, the courses of rivers, the direc- 

 tion of mountains. On the other hand, there must be represented 

 how within each space or most spaces of the earth the communica- 

 tion is effected on the main and side lines in quite a different manner, 

 and how the spaces are distinguished from each other through the 

 different kinds of communication. 



The first who investigated the natural dependency of communi- 

 cation was Kohl. 2 But he tried to make the communication of 

 men too much mechanically dependent upon natural conditions; 

 in this he has found many followers. 3 Contrary to this view Hettner 

 emphasizes that the opening of each way originates from acts of 

 human will, which are influenced by distinct motives and must be 

 subjected to psychological analysis. Thus the way is shown on 

 which the connection between geographical and social research can 

 , be traced. At which extent of reflection one can thus arrive, 



1 The first work aiming at " economic geography " is Andree's Geographic des 

 Welthandels, 1867. The French works are considered of greater value by geo- 

 graphers, e. g., the Precis de geographic economique, by N. Dubois and I. C. Her- 

 gonard, Paris, 1897. The definition given in the text is that of Goetz in the 

 Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft der Erdkunde, Berlin, 1882; cf. Sieger, Forschungs- 

 methoden in der Wirtschaftsgeographie, Verhandlungen des Deutschen Geogra- 

 phentages, 1903, p. 93. 



2 Der Verkehr und die Ansiedelungen des Menschen in ihrer Abhangigkeit von 

 der GestaUung der Erdoberstache, Dresden, 1841. 



3 Cotta, Deutschlands Boden, sein geographischer Ban und dessen einwirkungen 

 auf das Leben des Menschen, 1854, 1. Band, S. 18; and Jansen, Die Bedingtheit 

 des Verkehr s und die Ansiedelungen des Menschen durch die Geslaltung der Erdober- 

 stache, Kiel, 1861. 



