Key Arguments

• Smith contrasts the apparent ‘concert’ of two greyhounds hunting with humans’ contractual exchanges, arguing that the dogs’ behaviour ‘is not the effect of any contract, but of the accidental concurrence of their passions in the same object at that particular time’.
• He emphasizes that ‘Nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate exchange of one bone for another with another dog’, nor an animal that can signify ‘this is mine, that yours; I am willing to give this for that’, illustrating the absence of explicit exchange among animals.
• When an animal wants something, ‘it has no other means of persuasion, but to gain the favour of those whose service it requires’, and Smith details how a ‘puppy fawns upon its dam’ and a ‘spaniel endeavours, by a thousand attractions, to engage the attention of its master’—behaviour he later notes men sometimes copy.
• He points out that in ‘civilized society’ man ‘stands at all times in need of the co-operation and assistance of great multitudes, while his whole life is scarce sufficient to gain the friendship of a few persons’, making reliance on personal favour and benevolence impracticable.
• Consequently, ‘it is in vain for him to expect’ the needed help ‘from their benevolence only’; instead, ‘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.’
• Smith generalizes this into the structure of a bargain: ‘Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer’, and he claims ‘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.’
• He crystallizes the point in the famous line that ‘It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest’, showing that even ordinary daily provisioning relies on appeals to self-interest.
• He notes that ‘Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens’, underscoring that in normal circumstances dependence on charity is avoided.

Source Quotes

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. Two greyhounds, in running down the same hare, have sometimes the appearance of acting in some sort of concert. Each turns her towards his companion, or endeavours to intercept her when his companion turns her towards himself.

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. Nobody ever saw one animal, by its gestures and natural cries signify to another, this is mine, that yours; I am willing to give this for that.

Nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate exchange of one bone for another with another dog. Nobody ever saw one animal, by its gestures and natural cries signify to another, this is mine, that yours; I am willing to give this for that. When an animal wants to obtain something either of a man, or of another animal, it has no other means of persuasion, but to gain the favour of those whose service it requires.

He has not time, however, to do this upon every occasion. In civilized society he stands at all times in need of the co-operation and assistance of great multitudes, while his whole life is scarce sufficient to gain the friendship of a few persons. In almost every other race of animals, each individual, when it is grown up to maturity, is entirely independent, and in its natural state has occasion for the assistance of no other living creature.

In almost every other race of animals, each individual, when it is grown up to maturity, is entirely independent, and in its natural state has occasion for the assistance of no other living creature. 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.

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.

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. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

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. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages.

Key Concepts

• Two greyhounds, in running down the same hare, have sometimes the appearance of acting in some sort of concert.
• Nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate exchange of one bone for another with another dog.
• Nobody ever saw one animal, by its gestures and natural cries signify to another, this is mine, that yours; I am willing to give this for that.
• In civilized society he stands at all times in need of the co-operation and assistance of great multitudes, while his whole life is scarce sufficient to gain the friendship of a few persons.
• 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.
• Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer;
• It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

Context

Middle of Chapter II, where Smith elaborates the practical implications of the human propensity to exchange by contrasting human social dependence with animal independence, and by explaining everyday economic interaction as bargaining that appeals to self‑love rather than benevolence.