# nation of shopkeepers (kind)

*Ordinarily means:* a description of a people as defined by trade and commerce

A collective self's kind named from one pattern of its members' acts, read by it or by others as what it is and can do.

- Computed level: L16 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: published  ·  Domain: agency

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [collective self](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-collective-self.shared), [pattern](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-pattern.regularity), [name](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-name.identifier), [member](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-member.social), [act](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-act.deed), [read](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-read.information), [others](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-others.distinct-entities), [reach](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-reach.action), [self-model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-self-model.reflexive), [identity](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-identity.self)

**Through:** One common pattern among members is taken as the whole group's kind; the name then sets a model of its reach, used by others to predict it and by the group to read itself.

**Novel properties:**
- a whole read from one habit of its parts
- a name that sets expected reach
- the same label used as praise or as slight

## Examples
- Adam Smith used 'a nation of shopkeepers' in The Wealth of Nations (1776); the phrase is popularly attributed to Napoleon. *(history)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-nation-of-shopkeepers.kind*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-nation-of-shopkeepers.kind.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*