We report data from laboratory experiments where participants were primed using phrases related to markets and trade. Participants then participated in trust games with anonymous strangers. The decisions of primed participants are compared to those of a control group. We find evidence that priming for market participation affects positively the beliefs regarding the trustworthiness of anonymous strangers and increases trusting decisions.

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Is trade a promoter of peace? Adam Smith, one of the earliest defenders of trade, worries that commerce may instigate some perverse incentives, encouraging wars. The wealth that commerce generates decreases the relative cost of wars; it increases the ability to finance wars through debts, which decreases their perceived cost; and it increases the willingness of commercial interests to use wars to extend their markets, increasing the number and prolonging the length of wars. Smith therefore cannot assume that trade would yield a peaceful world. While defending and promoting trade, Smith warns us not to take peace for granted.

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Even if his analysis is not a blind, one-sided lauding of commerce, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (WN) is often presented as a book that praises commercial societies. For Smith, commerce increases material prosperity and allows for freer institutions and more moral customs. By focusing on the role of distance in The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS), this article proposes that TMS could also be read as a book praising commercial societies because commerce may bring about the environment that best facilitates moral development.Commerce breaks the boundaries of small and closed communities. Commercial societies allow for, and are based on, interactions among strangers. And the continuous exposure to strangers can facilitate the moralizing process. In TMS, Smith tells us that humankind is naturally biased by its self-love. Smith also tells us that each individual naturally desires the approbation of others. A person receives approbation when another individual reacts similarly or feels the same as he or she does. The closer one person is to another, the easier it is to share the same feelings and the less effort one has to exert to develop command over his passions. The farther away one is from another person, the more difficult