Formerly, as he admits, he stressed how like other animals humans are. In one respect, however, it is a curious departure from his previous work. His new book exhibits his characteristic virtues: trenchancy, fluency, wit and dazzling command of diverse material.

He should see where optimism leads, but seems irresistibly drawn towards risky speculations. He used to be chairman of Northern Rock, but still navigates with the sirens. Yet Matt Ridley, who is an excellent biologist and ought to know something about how to adapt for survival, proclaims himself a ‘rational optimist’. Pessimism is the more informed, more modest, and more reasonable option. Optimism has the advantages of elegance and flair. In the race of life, optimists are hares – bounding and reckless – while pessimists are tortoises, inching and defensive. Human beings promote economic evolution because of exchange, and the world realizes prosperity because of exchange.

In the long run pessimists outdo them with the unspectacular gains of caution, and outlive them by preparing for the worst. Ferguson (The Ascent of Money), and Thomas Friedman (The World Is Flat) will find much to ponder and enjoy in The Rational Optimist. What led to this prosperity According to the author of The Rational Optimist, Matt Ridley, the answer is exchange. Optimists are gamblers who sometimes get lucky breaks but usually overplay their hands. Each burst of the trading spirit nudges humanity up a notch, but each is dragged down by war, overpopulation or the “parasites” who strangle the merchant class: aristocrats, governments, emperors, health and safety inspectors.Pessimism is the only effective indemnity against disappointment. Viewed through this perspective, the subsequent history of our species has been a struggle between specialisation and subsistence, as trading networks edge towards the right numbers, resources and administrative systems to unleash the power of that magical engine of prosperity and innovation known as the market. Hunting and gathering expanded into a process by which makers of spears, beads or fishhooks could concentrate on what they were best at, increasing humanity’s productivity at the expense of its competitors. It was not the size of our brains that allowed us to make great leaps forward, he claims, but barter, which meant we could focus on what we were best at. Ridley’s central thesis is that mankind’s development has been as much guided by Adam Smith as by Charles Darwin.

The rational optimist review