The body of thought on location is composed of several contributory JL streams. The best known of these, that associated with the name of Alfred Weber, has concerned itself with the explanation of the choice of production sites by manufacturing industries, and is consequently the stream most closely related to my inquiry.1 However, the Weber school typically pays very little attention to the historical aspects of its subjects; this neglect is apparent both in the nature of the data employed and in the selection of scope, and the placing of emphasis. In the first part of this paper I shall offer an example of a Weber-like analysis or evaluation of the location factors involved in the cotton industry of this country during the past sixty years, as adapted to the purposes of historical inquiry and to the use of historical data; in the second part, I shall apply to some specific historical situations the results of the analysis presented in the first part.