Part I - Individuals

Summary

Two greyhounds, in running down the same hare, have sometimes the appearance of acting in some sort of concert … This, however, is not the effect of any contract, but of the accidental concurrence of their passions in the same object at that particular time. Nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate exchange of one bone for another with another dog … But man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only. He will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self-love in his favour, and shew them that it is for their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them. Whoever offers to another a bargain of any kind, proposes to do this. Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer; and it is in this manner that we obtain from one another the far greater part of those good offices which we stand in need of.

Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (1776)

Adam Smith recognised the capacity to ‘make a fair and deliberate exchange’ as a unique characteristic of the human species: ‘It is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals, which seem to know neither this nor any other species of contracts.