On trust as a commodity and on the grammar of trust q M. Ali Khan * Department of Economics, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA Abstract I look at ‘trust’ in the light of two constructions taken from economic science: general com- petitive analysis and the theory of games. I draw on Baier’s anti-contractarian perspective, as well as on one informed by Wittgenstein’s writings. The former focuses on relations between inherently unequal and asymmetrical individuals, while the latter draws on and revolves around the imperative in the Philosophical Investigations: ‘‘Let the use teach you the meaning’’ [p. 212; also p. 220]. I try to spell out how the choice of language has epistemological impli- cations: for an analysis of trust, for the trustworthiness of the scientific constructions I use for analyzing trust, and thereby, more generally, for defining ‘ourselves’ and our ‘form of life.’ Ó 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification: A12; A13; B41; D60 Keywords: Trust; Price system; Commodity; Contract; Language Journal of Banking & Finance 26 (2002) 1719–1766 www.elsevier.com/locate/econbase q The first draft of this paper was prepared for a conference on ‘‘Measuring and Managing Ethical Risk: How Investing in Ethics Adds Value’’ held on September 23–24, 1999, at the Center for Ethics and Religious Values in Business, University of Notre Dame. I am grateful to Ralph Chami and Tom Cosimano for their invitation, to Omar and Lulu Khan for many discussions on the ‘practice of everyday life’, and to Woody Howard for two enlightening conversations on ‘penumbral thinking’. I also thank David Levy for inviting me to present a preliminary version of the paper on September 29, 1999, at the Center for the Study of Public Choice, George Mason University; and also thank him, Talal Asad, John Boatright, Nancy Chau, Ralph Chami, Jonathan Cohen, Tom Cosimano, Tom Donaldson, David Ellerman, Georges Enderlie, Dick Flathman, Connie Fullenkamp, Ashraf Ghani, Marc Le Menestrel, Ron Heiner and Ismail Sirageldin for encouragement and critical comments. I am sorry not to have been able to take all of their comments into account in this work. This essay is dedicated to Sid Mintz – I have been rewarded innumerable times by, and because of, my trust in his judgements about the human sciences. * Tel.: +1-410-516-8545. E-mail address: akhan@jhu.edu (M.A. Khan). 0378-4266/02/$ - see front matter Ó 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S0378-4266(02)00189-9