44 lines
1.7 KiB
Markdown
44 lines
1.7 KiB
Markdown
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# Propensity to Truck, Barter, and Exchange
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## Definition
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An innate or fundamental disposition in human nature to negotiate, trade, and
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exchange goods with others. Smith identifies this propensity as the ultimate
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cause of the division of labour, arguing that it is unique to humans and
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absent in all other animal species. He leaves open whether it is a primary
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instinct or a consequence of the faculties of reason and speech, but treats
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it as the foundational mechanism from which specialisation and economic
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organisation emerge.
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## Source Chapter
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Book I, Chapter 2: "Of the Principle which gives Occasion to the Division
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of Labour"
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## Context
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This is the central thesis of the chapter. Smith argues that the division of
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labour "is not originally the effect of any human wisdom" but rather the
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"necessary, though very slow and gradual, consequence" of this propensity.
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The entire chapter serves to establish exchange as the causal origin of
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specialisation.
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## Economic Domain
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General Theory
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## Smith's Original Wording
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"This division of labour, from which so many advantages are derived, is not
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originally the effect of any human wisdom, which foresees and intends that
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general opulence to which it gives occasion. It is the necessary, though very
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slow and gradual, consequence of a certain propensity in human nature [...] the
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propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another."
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## Modern Interpretation
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This concept prefigures the modern economic assumption of rational self-interest
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as the basis of market behaviour. It also anticipates evolutionary and
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institutional economics debates about whether exchange is a natural disposition
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or a culturally constructed institution.
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