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# Trade as Union and Friendship

## Definition

The natural role of commerce as a cooperative activity that should foster peaceful relations and mutual benefit between nations through the voluntary exchange of goods and services, rather than serving as a source of conflict and competition.

## Source Chapter

Book IV, Chapter 3

## Context

Smith laments how mercantile policies have perverted the natural character of trade, transforming what should be a bond of international friendship into a source of discord and animosity between nations.

## Economic Domain

Exchange

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