Towards a Geography of financial Relationships

As we all know, the theories of economic location both in their classic shape and the more recent updatings mainly investigate the distribution of production and exchange in their physical dimension. Although the central place theory deals with the location of services, often immaterial, the attention is focused on the structures. The key concept remains the economic distance, linked to the transfer of goods. This approach cannot explain a world geography where the friction of space is continuously shrinking while the international distribution of activities is commanded by the management of financial assets. The paper tries to point out some basic concepts, the objects characterizing this kind of space, and the flows connecting them. The graphic representations tentatively describe some of these peculiar patterns and outline specific features like the circulation of capitals and the profits offshoring schemes.