We have 99 percent in common with the fierce chimpanzee, which explains much of the history of the 20th century. Russians and Poles historically have not cooperated on very much other than killing each other — the Soviets were the worst brutes of their time, but the Poles dished it out pretty rough, too, for instance in the Polish–Muscovite War — but Russians and Poles cooperate in the production of Nutella (and much else). The French may have mixed feelings about bringing Turkey into the European Union, but they are happy to bring their hazelnuts. The Italians and the Turks within recent memory fought a war (creating Libya in the process), but they can work together peacefully through trade and specialization. There are still living veterans of the most recent war that saw Canada and the United States on one side with Germany and Italy on the other — 25,000 Canadians died in the Italian campaign alone — but Nutella transcends history.

Nutella is a product of a truly global economy, and as a model of human cooperation, it is beautiful. But it is not without its costs. Such spontaneous orders are by their nature unpredictable; they create opportunities and crises at the same time. In business, entrenched market incumbents are the firms with the most to gain and the most to lose from unforeseen developments. When he was running Microsoft, Bill Gates used to say that he wasn’t afraid of Oracle or Apple but lost sleep over the prospect of a kid beavering away in his garage with the next out-of-left-field thing, which could (and, eventually, would) knock the crown off Microsoft’s head. In fact, Microsoft got knocked around by both ends of the market — from the upstart Google, which as of the close of the third quarter was bigger than Chevron, and from Apple, the most valuable company in the world. Google and Apple both took advantage of new forms of commerce developing online, and Microsoft’s once dominating position was substantially diminished.