Daoist Principles As a Solution for Sustainable Business

Abstract

190 Daoist Principles As a Solution for Sustainable Business RITA EGIZII A discussion of business sustainability cannot begin without a brief his‑ tory of commerce, as we know it today. Trading, which is at the root of commerce, most likely reaches back to prehistoric times, when early people began bartering from each other, goods and materials they had, for goods and services they did not have. The history of long‑distance commerce dates back to circa 150,000 years ago (Watson 2005). As de‑ scribed already by Powers: The history of commerce is the history of civilization. In his barbarous state man’s wants are few and simple, limited to his physical existence, such as food, clothing and shelter, but as he advances in the scale of in‑ telligence his wants increase and he requires not only the comforts and conveniences of life but even the luxuries. Civilized man is never satis‑ fied, for no sooner is a want supplied than another arises in its place, and under that stimulus he achieves mighty conquests over the forces of nature and attains to a high degree of development in character. Commerce is one of the means by which various peoples have at dif‑ ferent times undertaken to supply their needs. (1903, 18) Interestingly, Laozi provides a similar observation: The Way of Heaven is like the flexing of a bow. The high it presses down; the low it raises up. From those with a surplus it takes away. To those without enough, it adds on. Therefore the way of Heaven is to reduce the excessive and increase the insufficient. The way of Man—is to reduce the insufficient and offer more to the excessive. (Daode jing 77; Henricks 1989, 48) Egizii, “Sustainable Business” / 191 As civilization became more complex, those economies which relied on barter began to experience what has been coined as the “coincidence of wants” problem. The dilemma is caused by “the improbability of the wants, needs or events that cause or motivate a transaction occurring at the same time and the same place” (Jevons 1875). Often described as a “double coincidence of wants,” in‑kind transactions have several prob‑ lems, the most common being timing and need conflicts. If two parties wished to trade fruit for wheat, the transaction could only be completed when the fruit and wheat were both available at the same time and place. Concurrently, if someone wanted fruit but only had lumber to trade in exchange and the owner of the fruit did not want (or need) lumber at that time, the transaction would not make much sense. Creating a medium of exchange, such as money, solved this prob‑ lem (Kiyotaki and Wright 1989, 927‑54). The use of money, in effect, made all commodities available when they were wanted, and, at a sup‑ posed equal exchange value, for what was being bartered. For the pur‑ pose of exchange then, money came to serve three key purposes: 1) unit of account which facilitates valuation and calculation; 2) store of value which allows economic transactions to be conducted over long periods of time as well as across broad geographical distances; 3) medium of ex‑ change which eliminates the inefficiencies of barter (Ferguson 2008). According to most modern scholars, the Lydians were the first peo‑ ple to introduce the use of gold and silver coin. It is thought that these first stamped coins, as documented in the History of Herodotus (440 BCE), were minted around 650‑600 BCE. The first banknotes were used in China in the ninth century, and the first in Europe issued by Stockholms Banco in 1661.128 As communication increased and civilization developed, no one community was capable of producing all the things which it began to consume—either through need, or, more importantly, because of now defined “wants.” The beginning of “commerce” then, as the modern world knows it, began with the interchange of products with other communities or nations, either domestic or foreign. As ancient civilizations continued to develop, a “merchant class” began to emerge. The quest for new trading partners had powerful conse‑ 128 www.rg.ancients.info/lion/article.html. 192 / Journal of Daoist Studies 4 (2011) quences, including...