One of the myriad benefits of trade is that it engenders specialisation. When people can rest assured they don’t have to grow their food, build their shelter, and make their clothes, they can focus on earning enough money doing one thing. Then trade for everything they want.

In a population without trade, the amount of human knowledge barely exceeds that of a single person because it forces duplication of expertise. In a modern economy, we use millions of times more knowledge than could ever exist in a single human brain. No single person could explain every step involved in producing something as simple as a pencil.

Alongside respected specialisations like gastroenterologists and software developers are manicurists and fashion designers. The latter careers are no less crucial to the workings of the economy, as they free the time of the medical professionals that save lives and improve the well-being of those refreshed enough to write the code that runs our medical devices.

Our economy grows in proportion to the creation of new knowledge. With the division of labour, we enable niche areas of exploration and innovations that create our future.