abstract
| - The Great Chain is an allegorical term coined by Andrew Ryan to describe the market and its evolution, especially within Rapture. According to his ideal, each worker and consumer influences the economy through his or her natural endeavors to produce, buy and sell. The combined actions of all participants in the economy create a relatively unified movement, thus every individual is a "link" in this Great Chain of industry, pulling it in a certain direction without swaying it of their own accord. According to Andrew Ryan's vision, the Great Chain must be guided solely by individuals working for their own interest, which can only occur in a free market system. In an unrestricted economy, the Great Chain would obey only the laws of exchange: pricing and distribution, supply and demand. Because of this, Ryan despised government, since he saw no place for it in a society of open trade. Government, according to Ryan, was a hindrance to an economy's freedom and served only to leech resources away from it while forcefully depriving its participants of the fruits of their labor. In Ryan's early vision, no single individual or entity had the right to control the Great Chain: the freedom of the people rested on the freedom of the Chain, and to control it would equate to tyranny.
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