Having in the last two chapters reconstructed and discussed the
mechanism of spontaneous economic order, we shall now consider
Hayek's claim about the inherently beneficial character of such
order. Hayek does not confine himself to an explanatory perspec-
tive, merely giving an account of how in the market society indi-
vidual adjustment and rule-following bring about and sustain
economic order. He never leaves room for doubt that he also
regards such order as uniquely advantageous, writing, for ex-
ample, that 'the maintenance of a spontaneous order of society is
the prime condition of the general welfare of its members' ( 1976:
6). Hayek, it seems, offers two arguments destined to lend force
to this claim. The first, more hinted at than spelled out, is the
argument from the mutually advantageous nature of uncoerced
exchange, the second the argument from the market's efficiency.

Hayek nowhere explains in any detail how, based on the idea that
uncoerced exchange is mutually advantageous, spontaneous eco-
nomic order can be shown to be generally beneficial. Yet without
question there is, in his work, an argument to that effect. Roughly,
it runs as follows.

The things in the world are often not yet with the person who
wants them most. Hence, everybody can improve his situation if
there is room for exchange. This, Hayek says, is an insight already
attained long ago: 'It was the simple recognition that different
persons had different uses for the same things, and that often each
of two individuals would benefit if he obtained something the
other had, in return for his giving the other what he needed'
( 1976: 109). Exchange, as he elsewhere states with aphoristic

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