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# Commercial Order and Government Introduction

## Definition

The gradual process by which commerce and manufactures introduce regular
government, individual liberty and security to rural areas that previously
experienced continual war with neighbours and servile dependency on superiors,
representing the most important but least observed effect of commercial
development.

## Source Chapter

Book III, Chapter 4

## Context

Smith's third mechanism for rural improvement, arguing that commercial society
fundamentally transforms social relations by giving landowners something to
exchange their surplus produce for, breaking their dependence on retainers and
allowing the establishment of regular government and individual rights.

## Economic Domain

Regulation

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