But that's because our system enables - has to enable - transactions between total strangers. In the past a lot of the economies were local and between people w

But that's because our system enables - has to enable - transactions between total strangers. In the past a lot of the economies were local and between people who had to deal with one another again and again. There is plenty of human behavior enforced purely by human hard-wired or culturally enforced behavior. It is much stronger than most people realize because it's a constant hum in the background. The state and the tools you mention took it a level or two higher and enabled more complex and more dynamic structures.