tegwick
574bb11db6
Demonstrates infospace composition: the Wealth of Nations infospace is used as a discipline, applying Smith's economic framework as a lens to analyse modern supply chain management concepts. New example: examples/supply-chain-vsm/ - infospace.yaml binding WoN as discipline (../infospace-with-history) - 3 source documents: coordination mechanisms, capital & inventory, market structure (~400 words each, original content) - supply-chain-entity-schema-v1.0.md with WoN Concept required section - won-mapping-schema-v1.0.md with Conceptual Continuity rating - artifacts/won-reference/core-entities.md — 12 curated WoN entities for injection as discipline context - 8 hand-crafted entity files demonstrating LLM output format - 3 mapping files with full rationale and VSM inheritance chains - Viable: YES (5/5 thresholds) Key mappings demonstrated: Demand Signal → Effectual Demand (Strong, S2) Vendor-Managed Inventory → Division of Labour (Strong, S1/S2) Just-in-Time Inventory → Circulating Capital (Strong, S1/S3) Bullwhip Effect → Natural Price (Moderate, S2) Platform Intermediary → Merchant Capital (Strong, S2/S4) Monopsony Power → Combination of Masters (Strong, S3*) Platform fix: entity_parser.py now recognises ## Supply Chain Domain as a domain alias for ## Economic Domain, enabling composed infospaces to use their own domain section name. Tutorial §13 rewritten with real commands, real output, and the full mapping table from the demo. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Wealth of Nations — Core Entities Reference
A curated selection of WoN entities from the infospace at
../infospace-with-history/output/entities/, chosen for their relevance
to supply chain analysis. Use these as mapping targets in the
map-to-won pipeline stage.
Division of Labour
Slug: division-of-labour
The specialisation of tasks among workers or firms, each focusing on a narrow function to increase overall productive efficiency. Smith argues this is the primary source of economic progress, enabled by the certainty that surplus production can be exchanged.
VSM: S1 (primary operational mechanism)
Effectual Demand
Slug: effectual-demand
The demand of those who are willing and able to pay the natural price of a commodity. Effectual demand, not total desire, is what calls productive resources into action. When effectual demand exceeds supply, market price rises above natural price; when it falls short, market price falls below.
VSM: S2 (coordination signal — regulates resource allocation)
Natural Price as Central Price
Slug: natural-price-as-central-price
The natural price is the centre around which market prices continually gravitate. When the market price exceeds the natural price, capital is attracted; when it falls below, capital exits. The natural price is thus an equilibrium attractor that Smith likens to a centre of gravity.
VSM: S2 (coordination signal — equilibrium reference point)
Market Price Adjustment Mechanism
Slug: market-price-adjustment-mechanism
The process by which market price moves toward natural price through changes in supply. Excess supply depresses market price; scarcity raises it. The mechanism depends on capital mobility: if capital can freely enter and exit a sector, prices will converge to natural levels. Restrictions on capital mobility (monopoly, regulation) prevent convergence.
VSM: S2 (coordination mechanism — negative feedback loop)
Circulating Capital
Slug: circulating-capital
The component of capital that is used up in the course of a single productive cycle and must be continually replaced. Includes raw materials, work-in-progress, and the wages fund. Distinguished from fixed capital (machinery, buildings) by the fact that it yields its return only by changing hands. The speed of circulation determines how productively a given capital stock can be employed.
VSM: S1 / S3 (operational resource; managed for return velocity)
Accumulation of Stock
Slug: accumulation-of-stock
The process of building up capital reserves from savings (frugality), enabling future investment in productive capacity. Smith argues that capital accumulation precedes and enables division of labour — you cannot specialise workers until you have stock to sustain them while production is in progress. Stock functions as a buffer between production and consumption.
VSM: S3 (capital management — enables S1 operations)
Merchant Capital
Slug: merchant-capital
Capital employed by merchants who buy goods in one market and sell them in another, earning a profit from price differentials without directly engaging in production. Merchant capital performs the function of distribution: connecting producers and consumers who would otherwise face prohibitive search and transaction costs. Smith notes that merchants are mobile — they have no necessary attachment to any particular country — and that this mobility gives them leverage over producers and governments.
VSM: S2 / S4 (coordination; also market intelligence function)
Monopoly in Trade
Slug: monopoly-in-trade
A situation in which a single seller or a privileged group of sellers control supply in a market, enabling them to set prices above the natural level. Smith argues monopoly prices are always the highest that can be extracted from buyers, whereas competition drives prices toward the natural level. Monopoly distorts resource allocation by keeping prices high and restricting supply below what free competition would provide.
VSM: S5 (policy distortion — violates S2 equilibrating function)
Combination of Masters
Slug: combination-of-masters
The coordinated action by employers to restrain wages or otherwise improve their negotiating position relative to workers. Smith observes that such combinations are common but rarely discussed publicly. The practical effect is monopsony-like suppression of the returns to labour below their natural level.
VSM: S3* (audit / anti-competitive practice — distorts S2 signals)
Higgling and Bargaining of the Market
Slug: higgling-and-bargaining-of-the-market
The process of price discovery through negotiation between buyers and sellers. Smith describes it as the mechanism by which value in exchange is determined in practice — not by abstract calculation but by the push-and-pull of each party pursuing their own interest, with the result tending toward a price both can accept.
VSM: S2 (real-time coordination mechanism)
Invisible Hand Mechanism
Slug: invisible-hand-mechanism
The process by which individuals pursuing their private economic interest unintentionally produce outcomes beneficial to the whole economy. Smith uses this metaphor specifically for domestic investment decisions: a merchant who prefers domestic to foreign investment for security reasons inadvertently maximises domestic productive capacity. The mechanism does not require coordination — it is an emergent property of distributed self-interested action under competitive conditions.
VSM: S4 (distributed intelligence — environmental adaptation without central direction)
Capital Security Preference
Slug: capital-security-preference
Smith's observation that capital owners systematically prefer less risky applications of their capital over more risky ones, even when the expected return might favour the riskier option. This preference shapes the allocation of capital across sectors and geographic areas.
VSM: S3 (capital management — explains capital allocation patterns)
Market Communication Channels
Slug: market-communication-channels
The mechanisms through which information about prices, quantities, and conditions flows between market participants. Smith implicitly relies on such channels for his account of price adjustment — if buyers and sellers cannot learn each other's prices and terms, the equilibrating mechanism breaks down.
VSM: S2 (information infrastructure for coordination)