Trust is most important to business especially so in International trading where buyers and sellers do not meet face to face. In the absence of historical information one tends to rely on body language and senses to evaluate if one can trust the other or not. To rely on body language for evaluating trust can fail miserably if the other party is skilled fraudster. Tools of trade such as Letters of Credit etc are not helpful in the absense of the underlying trust between the parties.

So how can one establish trust in another? Is it a relative concept based on Time, place, value, person, or event or there are defining rules and processes that give a comfort feeling on trusting the other party. If one can be trusted for small values can that person be trusted for large values? How do you deal with Corporate trust ie trusting the companies than individuals.

My view is that trust is built over period of time and is based in based on record of experience. It takes many layers and levels of confirmation to build but can be destroyed by even a single incident. In the absense of information or evidence I try to adopt a least damage solution. By this I mean trust on trial basis. If it works then you can gradually increase the stake. If it fails in the first instance , consider yourself lucky because you have managed to avoid huge losses.
There is a saying that "It is better to have loved and Lost than not to have loved at all". This similarity lies in Trust as well. One has to experiment in trusting another person or persons in a variety of situations so as to experience a "breach" of trust when it occurs. Not experiencing this feeling means you are only exposing yourself to a big big breach in the passage of time.

Life's rich experience will teach you good lessons on where one needs to draw the line . It is better to draw the line once in a life time so you are safe 99% of the time.

Welcome readers ideas on this subject.
Happy day to you and start trusting in most situations.