It would be difficult to explain how trust could be present as often as it is in subcontracting if it were to depend on sentiments of friendship. If this were true, we would have to adopt in the economic sphere Hawthorn's (this volume) conclusion in the political: that any attempt to produce trust which was not in fact an attempt to produce something else, something self-reinforcing, must fail. It seems implausible to entertain feelings of friendship for someone when it is realized that he or she is acting in a friendly way solely for the purpose of facilitating an economic transaction.

XREF: Connects to Granovetter's embeddedness argument about how social relations undergird economic transactions — this appears to be a companion piece engaging the same debate about trust in economic life.

Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking…, loc. 2620