# Trade as Union and Friendship ## Definition The natural role of commerce as a cooperative activity that should foster peaceful relations and mutual benefit between nations through the voluntary exchange of goods and services, rather than serving as a source of conflict and competition. ## Source Chapter Book IV, Chapter 3 ## Context Smith laments how mercantile policies have perverted the natural character of trade, transforming what should be a bond of international friendship into a source of discord and animosity between nations. ## Economic Domain Exchange ---