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h their comprehension of the market, perform actions in such a way that, as a whole, they seem to be directed by one mind. Competition is not eliminated on this view of the market. Rather, it is a secondary, but essential, principle forcing all to offer products, produce, or services of the highest quality as cheaply as possible.

In a congeries of small 18th century markets, it might well have been possible for participants to read the needs of the others with great accuracy. In fact, business people in many markets can no doubt read others' moral expectations as well as their commercial preferences. Just as certain products will not sell, so certain kinds of business practices will not be acceptable, and the people of the community will quickly and effectively communicate these facts to businesspersons. For Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' to work effectively, it relies upon a decipherable coherence in the community within which the market is set. Smith also recognizes that there are good reasons for setting limitations upon business by government: laws prevent disputes and antagonism; policies such as universal education help the young grow into more capable and successful participants in the life of the community and its market. Adam Smith was not a laissez-faire economist.

Smith thought of persons as sociable, sympathetic, and cooperative. In business, they were self-interested, but in their personal lives their sentiments led them to be beneficent toward others. Whether in business or personal dealings, however, Smith concerned himself with private life. There is little place in Smith for civic minded public action. Nonetheless, Smith recognized, '[T]the wise and virtuous man is as all times willing that his own private interest be sacrificed to the public interest of his own particular order of society.' (9) Politics, for Smith, is of importance because it provides justice as the settlement of antagonisms; and, at its best, politics also provides the opportunity for the 'system of liberty,' the free market, to work unhindered except as necessary for the protection of its participants. For Smith, people go into public life, not from the virtuous motives of the ancients or from a love of public action in solidarity with others, but for self-aggrandizement before others. By contrast, David Hume, another Scot deeply suspicious of political life, recognized the possibility of the public happiness of citizens in a good polity. Hume saw that politics offers the opportunity to nurture and display 'artificial' virtue, that is, the growth and expansion of sympathy and beneficence beyond the natural ties of family and other intimates so as to encompass an ever larger community on behalf of whom citizens willingly commit themselves. Although he remained skeptical of the emergence of such a polity, Hume acknowledged its possibility and, indeed, its potential greatness, should it ever be realized. (10) Political leaders in such a regime would, no doubt, be ambitious for glory, but their glory would be tied to the advancement of their polity, not its exploitation. (It is not surprising that Hume and Montesquieu are the most frequently cited philosophers in The Federalist Papers.)

If we take Smith's 'invisible hand' beyond small markets with businesses subject to true competition and out of a surrounding society that imposes morals on and rewards honesty in tradespeople who respect the community's values,