Tony Brewer's comment that the origins of the phrase 'spontaneous order', and the origins of the idea as applied to human societies, do not have to be the same, is obviously correct. So it is not silly to look for the origins of the idea. I pointed out in an earlier message why I do not think that Smith is a good source for the origin of the idea. The reason is that he took coordination for granted. Hayek's example of the price of tin emphasizes something like "the marvel of the price system" as a "mechanism" for coordination. But, of course, the proper way to express this is to refer to the specific actions that cause the coordination to occur -- the setting of prices and the responses to them. This is what I called "intermediary entrepreneurship." One can be led to this entrepreneurship through Mill. The key is Wakefield's notion of complex cooperation. See: http://www.econlib.org/library/Mill/mlP.html Search: Wakefield. As I recall, I was led to this from a passage in Hayek. However, I am not an expert on Hayek; so my recollection may be mistaken. Pat Gunning