An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations | Page 8

the division of
labour. Men are much more likely to discover easier and readier methods of attaining any
object. when the whole attention of their minds is directed towards that single object, than
when it is dissipated among a great variety of things. But, in consequence of the division
of labour, the whole of every man's attention comes naturally to be directed towards some
one very simple object. It is naturally to be expected, therefore, that some one or other of
those who are employed in each particular branch of labour should soon find out easier
and readier methods of performing their own particular work, whenever the nature of it
admits of such improvement. A great part of the machines made use of in those
manufactures in which labour is most subdivided, were originally the invention of
common workmen, who, being each of them employed in some very simple operation,
naturally turned their thoughts towards finding out easier and readier methods of
performing it. Whoever has been much accustomed to visit such manufactures, must
frequently have been shewn very pretty machines, which were the inventions of such
workmen, in order to facilitate and quicken their own particular part of the work. In the
first fire engines {this was the current designation for steam engines}, a boy was
constantly employed to open and shut alternately the communication between the boiler

and the cylinder, according as the piston either ascended or descended. One of those boys,
who loved to play with his companions, observed that, by tying a string from the handle
of the valve which opened this communication to another part of the machine, the valve
would open and shut without his assistance, and leave him at liberty to divert himself
with his play-fellows. One of the greatest improvements that has been made upon this
machine, since it was first invented, was in this manner the discovery of a boy who
wanted to save his own labour.
All the improvements in machinery, however, have by no means been the inventions of
those who had occasion to use the machines. Many improvements have been made by the
ingenuity of the makers of the machines, when to make them became the business of a
peculiar trade; and some by that of those who are called philosophers, or men of
speculation, whose trade it is not to do any thing, but to observe every thing, and who,
upon that account, are often capable of combining together the powers of the most distant
and dissimilar objects. in the progress of society, philosophy or speculation becomes, like
every other employment, the principal or sole trade and occupation of a particular class of
citizens. Like every other employment, too, it is subdivided into a great number of
different branches, each of which affords occupation to a peculiar tribe or class of
philosophers ; and this subdivision of employment in philosophy, as well as in every
other business, improve dexterity, and saves time. Each individual becomes more expert
in his own peculiar branch, more work is done upon the whole, and the quantity of
science is considerably increased by it.
It is the great multiplication of the productions of all the different arts, in consequence of
the division of labour, which occasions, in a well-governed society, that universal
opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people. Every workman has a
great quantity of his own work to dispose of beyond what he himself has occasion for;
and every other workman being exactly in the same situation, he is enabled to exchange a
great quantity of his own goods for a great quantity or, what comes to the same thing, for
the price of a great quantity of theirs. He supplies them abundantly with what they have
occasion for, and they accommodate him as amply with what he has occasion for, and a
general plenty diffuses itself through all the different ranks of the society.
Observe the accommodation of the most common artificer or daylabourer in a civilized
and thriving country, and you will perceive that the number of people, of whose industry
a part, though but a small part, has been employed in procuring him this accommodation,
exceeds all computation. The woollen coat, for example, which covers the day-labourer,
as coarse and rough as it may appear, is the produce of the joint labour of a great
multitude of workmen. The shepherd, the sorter of the wool, the wool-comber or carder,
the dyer, the scribbler, the spinner, the weaver, the fuller, the dresser, with many others,
must all join their different arts in order to complete even this homely production. How
many merchants and carriers, besides, must have been employed in transporting the
materials from some of those workmen to others who often live in a