Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

36 How It WorksCooperationWe ask first how the market system achieves cooperation,looking only later at market peacekeeping. We need no theoryor elaborate analysis—only a commonplace example ortwo—for this display of the capacity of the market to accomplishcooperation through mutual adjustment. Almosteveryone who lives in a market system knows the elementaryfacts of market cooperation. The examples will, however,call attention to some aspects of it that are usuallytaken for granted, their significance often missed. My purposehere is not to construct an argument for the marketsystem but simply to tag its attributes significant for market-systemcooperation.During the course of a morning, a number of people stepinto a Milan cafe for an espresso. They do not doubt that itwill be available. What justifies their confidence? Makingthe coffee available rests on a great deal of cooperation,specifically, the assignment to many people of performancesthat together accomplish a feat beyond the capacity of anyone person alone. It is accomplished by market transactionsthat assign and link both multiple performances andmultiple chains of them. Farmers cooperate in growing andharvesting the coffee beans. Truck drivers or locomotiveengineers transport the beans to a seaport on highways orrailroads that have been constructed by many kinds of cooperatinglaborers. At the seaport, longshoremen and ships’crews join the chain. At a dock in Genoa, shipping the beanson to Milan calls again on performances from longshoremen,warehousers, and truckers. Somewhere along the chain,some people roast the beans, and others fabricate bags forcarrying them. Think of other participating cooperators: insurersand inspectors, wholesalers and retailers. Not to be