Unlike in statement (1) he is not just offering a description by the time he gets to (5). Although (5) may also be common, it is important to situate Smith's way of thinking here. Therefore, as stated by Smith, (3) is clearly false. However, today's increasingly globalized markets ensure that (2) is less frequently the case than it may have been in the past.

What does it amount to? Let's go by the numbers I inserted into Smith's lines above. (9) I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.' Smith tells us that every individual (1) 'intends to support his own security' and therefore (2) 'employs his capital in the support of domestic industry ' it follows (3) that each person 'necessarily labors to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can' without (4) 'intend to promote the public interest ' the individual (5) 'intends only his own gain,' but (6) 'he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.' This production of unintended consequences of action is (7) 'not always the worst' thing for society: (8) 'by pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I am adding numbers to guide us back to each point. Here is what we find in the single passage in Smith's Wealth of Nations (Book IV, Chapter ii) where the image of an Invisible Hand occurs.

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