Laissez-faire economics
The idea of "spontaneous order" was not new.
It was proposed in 1714 by the Dutch writer Bernard Mandeville, in his poem The Fable of the Bees.
This told the story of a beehive that was thriving on the "vices" (self-interested behaviour) of its bees.
When the bees became virtuous (no longer acting in their own self-interest but trying to act for the good of the hive), the beehive collapsed.
Smith's notion of self-interest was