Commerce is the name for free, mutual, and voluntary exchange among peoples. It is the normal activity by which interdependence is realized and the common good of all served. It is an activity typically more unifying than politics, nationalism, religion, or conquest. Its nature is social, as is its function, and as are the virtues it inculcates.

Michael Novak (1984). Geciteerd in Deirdre McCloskey (2006). Bourgeois Virtues, p 61