Of the many contradictions we witness between fact and fiction, one that would rank among the most significant is the contradiction between the small-town image commonly used to represent the essence of free enterprise and the real context of early capitalism – the Atlantic trade among the peoples of Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Here is the fiction:

Such a context is not so difficult to imagine. Small shop owners provide different goods to each other, and the best way of doing this is for each to be guided by one's self-interest, since in this intimate setting it is certainly in their self-interest to provide a good product at a good price. How nice that we so easily do what is best for us and it turns out best for our neighbors.

The reality of commerce when Adam Smith was composing The Wealth of Nations was something else. The center of this trade was not the town square, but the Atlantic Ocean, which was used for the trafficking of millions of captive Africans to the Americas and the trafficking of American-grown sugar and tobacco to the Europeans, as well as the Europeans sending other products and services – such as credit and weapons – that went along with the development of any empire.