It is also common for people to think of capitalism and the marketplace as synonymous with my notion of pro commerce.
That is not the case.
My experience of commerce is significantly different than that of nearly everyone else at this time in history. I have worked with over 1,000 businesses in dozens of locations.
I have written a book called Commerce. The book explains what commerce is, based on my careful observations.
I cannot summarize it here but I can say that if you search for the places on the planet where commerce thrives you will find a number of characteristics that are common to those thriving commercial locations.
The first and most important is that commerce thrives in urban areas. Perfect examples are Singapore and Hong Kong. Islands of urban diversity. These locations drive commerce because they have a diversified population. Diversity is the very first element of a thriving commerce.
Urban areas throughout history have been the locations where commerce occurs. The reason is straightforward. The diverse viewpoints, skills and talents of people brought into one location are a microcosm of commerce on a larger scale.
Commerce is the exchange of goods and services because individuals can accumulate knowledge and skills that allow them to increase their individual production. Increasing an individual’s output in turn allows the individual to trade for a greater variety of the products and services that he needs and wants. It is this ability of humans to accumulate knowledge and skill that is the fundamental reason for trade and commerce.
Diversity of people provides a wider range of accumulated knowledge and skills. Just simply recognizing that some ethnic groups are better at cooking, some at repairing cars, others at technological innovation, still others at agriculture and others at theatrical creations is the basis for global commerce.
Similarly individuals in diverse urban environments have a wide range of accumulated knowledge and skill. Which is why an urban area where diverse people live and work is more productive of commerce than any of the homogeneous parts of the world.
In addition to diversity, commerce thrives only in societies that respect merit. Merit exists as opposed to family choice of other people to work with or tribal choice of other people to work with. Merit allows the individual who is most competent to do each job.
The third critical ingredient for commerce to thrive is openness. Openness is a category that includes the subcategory of honesty. Openness is what allows people to work together productively. Businesses are built on internal openness. The first great commercial society was Holland, the first open society. Denmark was second.
Think about what it must be like to work with someone who is secretive or dishonest.
Such a situation cannot result in productivity.
It may be possible for one company that is honest internally to work with another company that is honest internally when both entities treat each other as enemies. However the productive part of the process requires openness and honesty within the entity that is productive. Openness in the society is even better for productivity. Consider the two societies that leaped into modernity: Japan and Israel... both open societies.
Now put together what I have talked about here: diversity, meritocracy and openness. None of those subjects are treated under the title of capitalism or the marketplace.
What I am talking about as pro commerce is quite removed from the traditional discussion about our current world. What I am talking about requires a different perspective and a different way of generating the forces that have created the modern world. My analysis is different. You can detect it from your regular reading of this blog.