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TIIE NATURE AND CAUSES Of
BOOK I.
Of the causes of imvrovement in the produc-tive POWERS OF LABOUR, AND OF THE ORDER AC-CORDING TO WHICH ITS PRODUCE IS NATURALLYDISTRIBUTED AMONG THE DIFFERENT RANKS OF THEPEOPLE.
CIIAP. I.
The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour,
^ and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment withwhich it is any where directed, or applied, seem to have beenthe effects of the division of labour.
The effects of the division of labour, in the general busi-ness of society, will be more easily understood by consideringin what manner it operates in some particular manufactures.It is commonly supposed to be carried furthest in some verytrifling ones; not perhaps that it really is carried further inthem than in others of more importance: but in those triflingmanufactures which are destined to supply the small wantsof but a small number of people, the whole number of work-men must necessarily be small; and those employed in everydifferent branch of the work can often be collected into thesame workhouse, and placed at once under the view of thespectator. In those great manufactures, on the contrary,which are destined to supply the great wants of the greatbody of the people, every different branch of the work em-ploys so great a number of workmen, that it is impossible tocollect them all into the same workhouse. We can seldomsee more, at one time, than those employed in one singlebranch. Though in such manufactures, therefore, the workmay really be divided into a much greater number of partsthan in those of a more trifling nature, the division is not nearso obvious, and has accordingly been much less observed.
To take an example, therefore, from a very trifling manu-facture, but one in which the division of labour has beenvery often taken notice of, the trade of the pin-maker; aworkman not educated to this business (which the divisionof labour has rendered a distinct trade), nor acquainted withthe use of the machinery employed in it (to the invention of