A third story

Markets are more than price-making mechanistic systems. Markets are also relational systems: networks of relations of exchange organising the provision of our needs and as such influencing the way we live, think, choose, work and relate to one another. In the stories economists tell about the market, however, both views of the market have become separated. Such stories typically either sketch a development towards a mechanistic view of markets or offer an account of contrasting the two representations of the market. This book offers a third story, tracing out the changing relationship between a price system and a relational system as political economists debated the potential of the system of commerce to increase wealth and to strengthen conditions of trust, cooperation and welfare.