In an uncivilized nation, and where labour is undivided1, everything is provided for that the natural wants of man kind require; yet, when the nation is cultivated and labour divided, a more liberal provision is allotted them; and it is on this account that a common day labourer in Britain has more luxury in his way of living than an Indian - sovereign. The woollen coat he wears requires very considerable preparations — the wool-gatherer, the dresser, the spinster, the dyer, the weaver, the tailor, and many more, must all be employed before the labourer is clothed. The tools by which all this is effectuated employ a still greater number of artists — the loom-maker, miln-wright, rope- maker, not to mention the bricklayer, the tree-feller, the miner, the smelter, the forger, the smith, &c. Besides his dress, consider all his household furniture, his coarse linens, his shoes, his coals dug out of the earth or brought by sea, his kitchen utensils and different plates, those that are employed in providing his bread and beer, the sower, the brewer, the reaper, the baker, his glass windows and the art required in preparing [them], without which our northern climate could hardly be inhabited. When we examine the conveniences of the day labourer, we find 1 The term ' division of labour' phrase without explanation. See does not appear to be an old one. too the index to part ii. s. v.
Mandeville, in part ii. (published Labour.
in 1729) of the Fable of the Bees, 2 I. e. of course, American Dialogue vi. p. 335, makes Cleo- Indian. ' A king of a large and menes say that people enjoying fruitful territory there [America], quiet will soon learn ' to divide and feeds, lodges, and is clad worse subdivide their labour,' but Hora- than a day labourer in England.'
tins does not understand the Locke, Civil Government, § 41.
M PART II: POLICE that even in his easy simple manner he cannot be ac commodated without the assistance of a great number, and yet this is nothing compared with the luxury of the nobility. An European prince, however, does not so far exceed a commoner, as the latter does the chief of a savage nation l. It is easy to conceive how the rich can be so well provided for, as they can direct so many hands to serve their purposes. They are supported by the industry of the peasant. In a savage nation every one enjoys the whole fruit of his own labour2, yet their indigence is greater than anywhere.
It is the division of labour which increases the opulence of a country.
In a civilized society, though there is a division of labour, 1 The whole of this passage from the beginning of the para graph reappears without much alteration in W. of N. bk. i. ch. i. vol. i. pp. 12-14. Locke had said: ' 'Tis not barely the ploughman's pains, the reaper's and thresher's toil, and the baker's sweat [that] is to be counted into the bread we eat; the labour of those who broke the oxen, who digged and wrought the iron and stones, who felled and framed the timber employed about the plough, mill, oven, or any other utensils, which are a vast number, requisite to this corn, from its being seed to be sown to its being made bread, must all be charged on the account of labour.' Civil Government, § 43. Mandeville had wondered 'what a number of people, how many different trades, and whatavariety of skill and tools must be employ ed ' to produce the 'thick parish gown ' of the pauper (Fable of the Bees, pt. i. Remark P. anded., 1723, p. 182), and ' what a bustle is there to be made in several parts of the world before a fine scarlet or crimson cloth can be produced, what multiplicity of trades and artificers must be employed! Not only such as are obvious, as wool- combers, spinners, the weaver, the cloth-worker, the scourer, the dyer, the setter, the drawer and the packer; but others that are more remote and might seem foreign to it, as the mill-wright, the pewterer, and the chemist, which yet are all necessary, as well as a great number of other handicrafts, to have the tools^ utensils, and other implements belonging to the trades already named ' (ibid. ' A Search into the Nature of Society,' pp. 325, 326). A shorter reference to the number of operations requisite to provide a coat occurs in Harris, Essay of Money and Coins, pt. i. § 12.
2 W. of N. bk. i. chs. vi, viii.
CHEAPNESS OR PLENTY 163 there is no equal division, for there are a good many who work none at all l. The division of opulence is not according to the work. The opulence of the merchant is greater than that of all his clerks, though he works less2; and they again have six times more than an equal number of artisans, who are more employed:!. The artisan who works at his ease within doors has far more than the poor labourer who trudges up and down without intermission. Thus, he who as it were bears the burden of society, has the fewest advantages.
[$4. How the Division of Labour multiplies the Product.} We shall next show how this division of labour occasions a multiplication of the product, or, which is the same thing, how opulence arises from it. In order to this let us observe the effect of the division of labour in some manufactures. If all the parts of a pin were made by one man, if the same person dug the ore, [sjmelted it, and split the wire, it would take him a whole year to make one pin, and this pin must therefore be sold at the expense of his maintenance for that time, which, taking [it] at a moderate computation, would at least be six pounds for a pin. If the labour is so far divided that the wire is ready-made, he will not make above twenty per day, which, allowing ten pence for wages, makes the pin a half-penny 4. The pin-maker therefore divides the labour among a great number of different persons; the cutting, pointing, heading, and gilding are all separate professions. Two or three are employed in making the head, one or two in putting it on, and so on, to the putting 1 W.ofN. Introduction, vol. i. * MS. reads 'two pence,' the p. 2. copyist probably having misread 2 Ibid. bk. i. ch. vi. pp. 50, 51. ' £d.' s I.e. who work harder.
164 PART II: POLICE them in the paper, being in all eighteen l. By this division every one can with great ease make 2000 a day2. The same is the case in the linen and woollen manufactures. Some arts, however, there are which will not admit of this divi sion, and therefore they cannot keep pace with other manu factures and arts. Such are farming and grazing. This is entirely owing to the return of the seasons, by which one man can only be for a short time employed in any one operation. In countries where the season[s] do not make such alterations it is otherwise. In France the corn is better and cheaper than in England:!. But our toys, which have no dependence on the climate, and in which labour can be divided, are far superior to those of France 4.
When labour is thus divided, and so much done by one man in proportion, the surplus above their maintenance is considerable, which each man can exchange for a fourth 5 of what he could have done if he had finished it alone.
1 W. of N. bk. i. ch. i. vol. i. pp. 6, 7. The fifth volume of the Encyclopedic, 1755, s. v. ' Epingle,' contains an elaborate description of the eighteen operations, con tributed by ' M. Delaire, qui de- crivait la fabrication de 1'epingle dans les ateliers meme des ouvriers,...tandis qu'il faisait imprimer a Paris son analyse...du chancelier Bacon,' (p. 807). If Adam Smith had relied on an English authority, he might have mentioned a larger number. ' Notwithstanding that there is scarce any commodity cheaper than pins, there is none that passes through more hands ere they come to be sold. They reckon twenty-five workmen successively employed in each pin between the drawing of the brass wire and the sticking of the pin in the paper.' Ephraim Chambers, Cyclopaedia, s.v. ' Pin,' vol. ii. and ed. 1738, 4th ed. 1741.
2 This figure is not from the Encyclopedic, and the number pro duced per man in the small factory spoken of in W. of N.
3 Ibid. bk. i. ch. i. vol. i. pp.
4 In W. of N. bk. i. ch. i. vol. i. p. 9, it is not the toys, but ' the hardware and the coarse woollens of England ' which ' are beyond all comparison superior.'
5 ' A fourth of ' is probably a mistake of the copyist foretimes.' The calculation is perhaps from Cantillon, who says that the labour of 25 adults is sufficient to procure for 100 others all the necessaries of life. Essai, CHEAPNESS OR PLENTY 165 By this means the commodity becomes far cheaper, and the labour dearer. It is to be observed that the price of labour by no means determines the opulence of society; it is only when a little labour can procure abundance. On this account a rich nation, when its manufactures are greatly improven, may have an advantage over a poor one by underselling it. The cotton and other commodities from China would undersell any made with us, were it not for the long carriage, and other taxes that are laid upon them \ We must not judge of the dearness of labour by the money or coin that is paid for it2. One penny in some places will purchase as much as eighteenpence in others. In the country of the Mogul, where the day's wages are only twopence, labour is better rewarded than in some of our sugar islands, where men are almost starving with four or five shillings a day. Coin, therefore, can be no proper estimate. Further, though human labour be employed both in the multiplication of commodities and of money, yet the chance of success is not equal. A farmer, by the proper cultivation of an acre, is sure of increase; but the miner may work again and again without success. Commodities must therefore multiply in greater proportion than gold and silver 3.
But again 4, the quantity of work which is done by the division of labour is much increased by the three following 1 According to the fashion of men get 2ii. a day for towing the time China is here regarded as boats from the canal banks, while a rich nation. See Cannan, His- in the American colonies five tory of the Theories of Production shillings a day and in Jamaica and Distribution, 1893, p. 12, note. six or seven shillings a day are 2 According to Defoe, Plan of regular wages (pp. 66, 67).
the English Commerce, 1728, the 3 And therefore will become manufactures of China, India, cheaper, so that the same income and other Eastern countries ' push in coin will indicate a larger themselves upon the world by amount of real opulence as time the mere stress of their cheap- goes on.
ness' (p. 65). A page or two 4 I.e. 'to return to our main further on he says that in China subject again.'
166 PART ii: POLICE articles: first, increase of dexterity; secondly, the saving of time lost in passing from one species of labour to another; and thirdly, the invention of machinery. Of these in order: First, when any kind of labour is reduced to a simple operation, a frequency of action insensibly fits men to a dexterity in accomplishing it. A country smith not accustomed to make nails will work very hard for three or four hundred a day, and those too very bad; but a boy used to it will easily make two thousand, and those incomparably better; yet the improvement of dexterity in this very complex manufacture can never be equal to that in others. A nail-maker changes postures, blows the bellows, changes tools, £c., and therefore the quantity produced cannot be so great as in manufactures of pins and buttons, where the work is reduced to simple operations1.
Secondly, there is always some time lost in passing from one species of labour to another, even when they are pretty much connected. When a person has been reading he must rest a little before he begin to write. This is still more the case with the country weaver, who is possessed of a little farm; he must saunter a little when he goes from one to the other. This in general is the case with the country labourers, they are always the greatest saunterers; the country employments of sowing, reaping, threshing being so different, they naturally acquire a habit of indolence, and are seldom very dex terous. By fixing every man to his own operation, 1 IV. of N. bk. i. ch. i. vol. i. p. 9. unique chose; tel autre une autre The Encyclopedic, torn. i. 1751, s. v. chose: d'oii il arrive que chacune 'Art' says, ' Lorsqu'une manu- s'execute bien et promptement, et facture est nombreuse, chaque que 1'ouvrage le mieux fait est operation occupe un homme encore celui qu'on a a meilleur different. Tel ouvrier ne fait et marche.' ne fera de sa vie qu'une seule et CHEAPNESS OR PLENTY 167 and preventing the shifting from one piece of labour to another, the quantity of work must be greatly increased '. Thirdly, the quantity of work is greatly increased by the invention of machines. Two men and three horses will do more in a day with the plough than twenty men without it. The miller and his servant will do more with the water miln than a dozen with the hand miln, though it, too, be a machine2. The division of labour no doubt first gave occasion to the invention of machines. If a man's business in life is the performance of two or three things, the bent of his mind will be to find out the cleverest way of doing it; but when the force of his mind is divided it cannot be expected that he should be so successful 3. We have not, nor cannot have, any complete history of the invention of machines, because most of them are at first imperfect, and receive gradual improvements and increase of powers from those who use them. It was probably a farmer who made the original plough, though the improvements might be owing to some other. Some miserable slave who had perhaps been employed for a long time in grinding corn between two stones, probably first found out the method of supporting the upper stone by a spindle. A miln-wright perhaps found out the way of turning the spindle with the hand, but he who contrived that the outer wheel should go by water was a philosopher, whose business it is to do nothing, but observe every- 1 W. of N. bk. i. ch. i. vol. i. p. a fourth makes garments, and 10, where, however, the example a fifth utensils, they not only of the little rest between reading become useful to one another^ and writing is omitted. but the callings themselves will, 2 Ibid. loc. cit., it is considered in the same number of years, 'unnecessary to give any ex- receive much greater improve- ample.' ments than if all had been pro- ;i ' If one will wholly apply miscuously followed by every himself to the making of bows one of the five.' Mandeville, and arrows, whilst another pro- Fable of the Bees, pt. ii. Dialogue vivides food, a third builds huts, pp. 335, 336.
l68 PART II I POLICE thing. They must have extensive views of things, who, as in this case, bring in the assistance of new powers not formerly applied. Whether he was an artisan, or whatever he was who first executed this, he must have been a philosopher. Fire machines, wind and water-milns were the invention of philosophers, whose dexterity too is increased by a division of labour1. They all divide them selves, according to the different branches, into the mechanical, moral, political, chemical philosophers.
Thus we have shown how the quantity of labour is increased by machines.
[§ 5. What gives Occasion to the Division of Labour] We have already shown that the division of labour is the immediate cause of opulence; we shall next consider what gives occasion to the division of labour2, or from what principles in our nature it can best be accounted for. We cannot imagine this to be an effect of human prudence. It was indeed made a law by Sesostris that every man should follow the employment of his father3, but this is by no means suitable to the dispositions of human nature, and can never long take place; every one is fond of being a gentleman, be his father what he would. They who are strongest and, in the bustle of society4, have got above the weak, must have as many under as to defend them in their station. From necessary causes, therefore, there must be as many in the lower stations as there is occasion for, 1 W. ofN. bk. i. ch. i. vol. i. pp. 3 Ibid. bk. iv. ch. ix. vol. ii. ii, 12. Mandeville, Fable of the p. 266, where, however, Sesostris Bees, pt. ii. Dialogue iii. pp. 152, is not named, the reference being J53> is much less favourable merely to Egypt and Hindostan. to the philosophers' claim to be * 'To what purpose is all the regarded as useful inventors. toil and bustle of this world? ' 2 W. of N. bk. i. ch. ii. heading. Moral Sentiments, 1759, p. 108.
CHEAPNESS OR PLENTY 169 there must be as many up as down, and no division can be overstretched '. But it is not this which gives occasion to the division of labour; it flows from a direct propensity in human nature for one man to barter with another, which is common to all men, and known to no other animal. Nobody ever saw a dog, the most sagacious animal, exchange a bone with his companion for another. Two greyhounds, indeed, in running down a hare, seem to have something like compact or agreement betwixt them, but this is nothing else but a concurrence of the same passions. If an animal intends to truck, as it were, or gain anything from man, it is by its fondness and kindness. Man, in the same manner, works on the self love of his fellows, by setting before them a sufficient temptation to get what he wants. The language of this disposition is, ' Give me what I want, and you shall have what you want.' It is not from benevolence, as the dogs, but from self love that man expects anything. The brewer and the baker serve us not from benevolence, but from self love. No man but a beggar depends on benevolence, and even they would die in a week were their entire dependence upon it2.
By this disposition to barter and exchange the surplus of one's labour for that of other people, in a nation of hunters, if any one has a talent for making bows and arrows better than his neighbours, he will at first make presents of them, and in return get presents of their game. By continuing this practice he will live better than before, 1 This passage is absent from solicitude in life of every IV. of N. bk. i. ch. ii. vol. i. p. 14. individual person. To expect 2 Ibid. pp. 14-16. Mandeville that others should serve us says:' The whole superstructure for nothing is unreasonable; is made up of the reciprocal therefore all commerce that men services which men do to each can have together must be a con- other. How to get these ser- tinual bartering of one thing for vices performed by others when another.' Fable of the Bees, pt. ii. we have occasion for them is Dialogue vi. p. 421.
the grand and almost constant 170 PART II: POLICE and will have no occasion to provide for himself, as the surplus of his own labour does it more effectually l.
This disposition to barter is by no means founded upon different genius and talents -. It is doubtful if there be any such difference at all, at least it is far less than we are aware of. Genius is more the effect of the division of labour than the latter is of it. The difference between a porter and a philosopher in the first four or five years of their life is, properly speaking, none at all. When they come to be employed in different occupations, their views widen and differ by degrees. As every one has this natural disposition to truck and barter, by which he provides for himself, there is no need for such different endowments; and accordingly, among savages there is always the greatest uniformity of character. In other animals of the same species we find a much greater difference than betwixt the philosopher and porter, antecedent to custom. The mastiff and spaniel have quite different powers, but though these animals are possessed of talents they cannot, as it were, bring them into the common stock and exchange their productions, and therefore their different talents are 1 The example of the bow and with ease and comfort. This arrow maker is in the passage in creates a dependence of one man Mandeville, quoted above, p. 167 upon another, and naturally unites note. In the parallel passage in men into societies. In like W. of N. bk. i. ch. ii. vol. i. p. 16, manner, as all countries differ Mandeville's hut-maker also more or less, either in the kinds reappears. or goodness of their products, 2 This contradicts a passage in natural or artificial, particular H arris' Essay on Money and Coins, men find their advantages, which pt. i. § ii. ' Men are endued with extend to communities in general, various talents and propensities by trading with the remotest which naturally dispose and fit nations.' Hume, 'Of the Original them for different occupations; Contract,' requires his readers to and are...under a necessity of ' consider how nearly equal all betaking themselves to particular men are in their bodily force, and arts and employments from their even in their mental powers and inability of otherwise acquiring faculties, 'ere cultivated by educa- all the necessaries they want cation.' Essays, 1748, p. 291.
CHEAPNESS OR PLENTY 171 of no use to them1. It is quite otherwise among mankind; the}' can exchange their several productions according to their quantity or quality; the philosopher and the porter are both of advantage to each other. The porter is of use in carrying burdens for the philosopher, and in his turn he burns his coals cheaper by the philosopher's invention of the fire machine2.
Thus we have shown that different genius is not the foundation of this disposition to barter which is the cause of the division of labour. The real foundation of it is that principle to persuade which so much prevails in human nature. When any arguments are offered to persuade, it is always expected that they should have their proper effect. If a person asserts anything about the moon, though it should not be true, he will feel a kind of uneasiness in being contradicted, and would be very glad that the person he is endeavouring to persuade should be of the same way of thinking with himself. We ought then mainly to cultivate the power of persuasion, and indeed we do so without intending it. Since a whole life is spent in the exercise of it, a reacry method of bargaining with each other must undoubtedly be attained. As was before observed, no animal can do this but by gaining the favour of those whom they would persuade. Sometimes, indeed, animals seem to act in concert, but there never is anything like bargain among them. Monkeys, when they rob a garden, throw the fruit from one to another, till' they deposit it in the hoard, but there is always a scramble about the division of the booty, and usually some of them are killed.
1 W, of N. bk. i. ch. ii. vol. i. pp. working under the protection of 16-18. the University of Glasgow, and 2 The steam engines of the time, on the eve of making his inven- used chiefly in draining mines, tion, when the lectures were went by this name. Watt was delivered.
172 PART II! POLICE [ § 6. That the Division of Labour must be proportioned to the Extent of Commerce^ From all that has been said we may observe that the division of labour must always be proportioned to the extent of commerce1. If ten people only want a certain commodity, the manufacture of it will never be so divided as if a thousand wanted it. Again, the division of labour, in order to opulence, becomes always more perfect by the easy method of conveyance in a country. If the road be infested with robbers, if it be deep and conveyance not easy, the progress of commerce must be stopped. Since the mending of roads in England forty or fifty years ago, its opulence has increased extremely. Water carriage is another convenience, as by it 300 ton can be conveyed at the expense of the tear and wear of the vessel, and the wages of five or six men, and that too in a shorter time than by a hundred wagons which will take six horses and a man each '2. Thus the division of labour is the great cause of the increase of public opulence, which is always proportioned to the industry of the people 3, and not to the quantity of gold and silver, as is foolishly imagined, and the industry of the people is always proportioned to the division of labour.
Having thus shown what gives occasion to public opulence, in farther considering this subject we propose to consider: First, what circumstances regulate the price of com modities: 1 ' Limited by the extent of the and two men, and carry four tons market.' W. of N. bk. i. ch. iii. each.
heading. f 3 ' Plus il y a de travail dansun 2 In W. ofN. bk. i. ch. iii. vol. i. Etat, et plus 1'Etat est cense riche p. 19, the ship only carries 200 naturellement.' Cantillon, Essai, tons and has six or eight men; p. 113.
the waggons have eight horses CHEAPNESS OR PLENTY 173 Secondly, money in two different views, first as the measure of value, and then as the instrument of commerce: Thirdly, the history of commerce, in which shall be taken notice of the causes of the slow progress of opulence, both in ancient and modern times, which causes shall be shown either to affect agriculture or arts and manufactures: Lastly, the effects of a commercial spirit, on the govern ment, temper, and manners of a people, whether good or bad, and the proper remedies. Of these in order.
[§ 7- What Circumstances regulate the Price of Commodities^ Of every commodity there are two different prices, which though apparently independent, will be found to have a necessary connexion, viz. the natural price and the market price1. Both of these are regulated by certain circumstances. When men are induced to a certain species of industry, rather than any other2, they must make as 1 IV. of N. bk. i. ch. vii. tions the markets admit of, by heading. Pufendorl'distinguishes reason of the plenty or scarcity of 'common or natural price' from buyers, money, or commodities, is 1 legal price' ('pretium legitimum') well known.' Ibid. § 10, Rennet's fixed by the magistrate (De iure transl., 3rd ed. 1717. naturae el gentium, lib. v. cap. i. 2 ' People that have children to § 8), thus including both Adam educate that must get their liveli- Smith's kinds of price in 'natural hood, are always consulting and price.' But he also says: ' In re- deliberating what trade or calling gulatingthis natural price, regard they are to bring them up to, till is to be had to the labour and they are fixed; and thousands expense of the merchant in im- think on this that hardly think porting and taking care of his at all on anything else. First, goods;...his time, his study, they confine themselves to their his care in getting, preserving, circumstances, and he that can and sorting his commodities, as give but ten pounds with his son also his servant's wages, may must not look out for a trade fairly be rated by him...But where they ask an hundred with what sudden and frequent altera- an apprentice: but the next they 174 PART ii: POLICE much by the employment as will maintain them while they are employed. An arrow-maker must be sure to exchange as much surplus product as will maintain him during as long time as he took to make them. But upon this principle in the different trades there must be a con siderable difference, because some trades, such as those of the tailor and weaver, are not learned by casual observation and a little experience, like that of the day-labourer, but take a great deal of time and pains before they are acquired. When a person begins them, for a considerable time his work is of no use to his master or any other person, and therefore his master must be compensated, both for what maintains him and for what he spoils. When he comes to exercise his trade, he must be repaid what he has laid out, both of expenses and of apprentice fee, and as his life is not worth above ten or twelve years' purchase at most, his wages must be high on account of the risk he runs of not having the whole made up1. But again, there are many