The Lucassens’ 2009 article has, at its heart, a familiar argument. This is not the first time
that high levels of pre-industrial mobility have been under discussion. Indeed, Steve Hochstadt
presents such mobility with great clarity in his study of migration in Germany, as
does Jan Lucassen for the North Sea system, and Nicolas Canny, Klaus Bade, and I for western
Europe, and Dirk Hoerder for the world.1 What this forum offers, then, is a consideration
of this argument with new data.