Speaker
Description
In the famous passage of the butcher, the brewer and the baker, after having pointed out that one can obtain one’s subsistence not from “benevolence”, but from the interest of others, Smith maintains that only beggars depend on the “benevolence of their fellow citizens”. However, he adds that, to be precise, even they must resort to the market.
Both beggars and domestic animals, such as dogs, try to arouse the benevolence of others to obtain advantages, and this places them in a relationship of hierarchical dependence with respect to their benefactors/masters. Furthermore, in the LJ, Smith observes that the gift, both in ancient and feudal societies and market societies, symbolized relationships of subordination. This makes it possible to discuss how Smith contrasted the market system, in which ideally persuasion and bargaining prevail, with (private and social) relationships of subordination that, based on benevolence-charity or on “command”, do not resort to those strategies that are necessary to identify a mutually advantageous exchange.
| Organization | University of Torino |
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