During my little AMA there were a lot of questions (which I will finish answering!) that came down to how goods moved around--a pretty fitting questions. I tried to answer as best I could, but I think now that this map explains the concept better than I ever could. The rise of electronic payments means that cash money really only circulates in "everyday" contexts--goods move freely in the American economy but physical cash does not, because if you want to purchase a shirt from New York but you live in Texas you do so over the internet, and if you travel to New York you take money out with an ATM there. What this means is that, in effect, the circulation of physical money has settled into the sort of "zones" that defined pre-industrial exchange. For example, you can see the mountain-bound areas of Washington and Oregon tightly form one geographic zone, while the long rambling plains of Montana, the Dakotas and Minnesota form another. But you can also see how arbitrary administrative boundaries--observe New Mexico and Arizona--create real borders.

This is what defined exchange in a pre-industrial economy--some goods in some contexts (such as wine, cloth, and olive oil) moved freely across the empire, but most exchange took place in fairly coherently defined "zones" formed primarily by geography but also by administrative and cultural boundaries.

I have a small mystery for all of you.

In my collection, I have two letters written in 1957 by a German man in, what I believe to be, the newly formed republic of South Vietnam. When I first came across this, it was part of a much larger collection being auctioned off. All items were connected with the conflicts in Indochina and had presumably been in storage for a very, very long time. I remember that when I received these two letters, they were vacuumed packed. Dirt and dust had gathered on it over the years and it seemed like it had been thrown out in the street for a few years. The letters had already been damaged before being vacuum packed, which meant that whoever had originally packed it put some value to it. After carefully removing the letters from their very dirty plastic seal, I put them into two polyester pockets.

When the letters were first offered to me, they were labeled as "French Foreign Legionnaire letters", which in retrospect seems rather silly considering that they were written 3 years after the end of the war. However, what if this German was indeed part of the FFL and remained in Vietnam after the war?

I have scanned both of the letters (I apologize for being awful at it, and for the glare in the first pic), with the hope that someone will be able to help me understand some of the content and if there are any clues in the letter (like the stationery and the coat of arms in the upper left-hand corner).

Here is the album of the letters.

I'm really getting in to Middle Eastern history, especially European colonialism and afterwards. I just read a book called The Struggle For Arab Independence and loved it.

This leads me to think I've made a good choice with my major.

Hello r/AskHistorians! Long time lurker, first time poster.

The wife and I are traveling to Italy on November for the first time. We are looking for some off the beaten path historic tours. Ancient Rome, the Renaissance or the history of the Catholic Church, we are interested in everything.

We are planning to visit Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Florence, Venice and Como.

Any cool ideas, leads or suggestions on what to do/see besides the typical italian attractions?

I asked a question in a new post yesterday that I'd love to hear the answer to! I'm curious to know what percentage (or general ratio) of women smoked cigarettes, prior to the famous 1929 "Torches of Freedom" cigarette marketing campaign.

I've been reading a lot about NACA airfoils and the respective performance differences between different foils on planes in WWII.

As it turns out like always, I have a lot to learn. That and it's actually quite amazing how young aerodynamics was as a research field during the 1940s.

How useful are journalists writing books about (what are going to be) historical events, anyway? Obviously, a good journalist is a good observer, but does that make for good historiography?

How to classify this kind of source?

Like Galloway's We Were Soldiers Once... And Young, Bowden's Black Hawk Down, &c.?

was listening to an old dan carlin hh podcast today and he asked his guest what the point spread would be if julius caesar fought a battle against alexander. i kinda want to make a thread to talk about what the point spreads would be if great generals in history squared off against eachother. would be fun to debate. there has to be a debate history sub on here right? hah

I am researching my ancestors in the 19th century in Posen/Poznan, today Poland, then Prussia, Germany.

I would really appreciate any recommendations for literature covering this time period and this area. I am especially interested in how the lives of the catholic peasants were affected by gradual liberation from serfdom in Prussia from the late 18th century on. I can read German.