Of The Division of Labour: Wealth of Nations Chapter 1

Claim

The biggest reason productive powers have increased is the division of labour.

Example of Division of Labour

The division of labour exists in both big, complex tasks and simple ones. However, It is easier to use simple examples because they can be viewed in one factory.

Pin Maker

Without division of labour, someone could make one pin a day while untrained. After practicing, he might work his way up to 20. The process of making a pin can be broken up into 18 divisions. A few of the jobs could include:

• Draw the wire
• Straighten the wire
• Cut the wire
• Point it
• Grind the top to make the head (2–3 operations)
• Put the head of the pin on
• White the pin
• Wrap it in paper

With the division of labour, 10 people could make 48,000 pins in a day.

In many other fields a similar increase in production can be shown.

“The division of labour, … in every art, [creates] a proportionable increase of the productive powers”

Labour became divided in order to get the increase in production. Labour is divided more in a wealthy country. Farming is a hard trade to subdivide but it is easy to see the difference when looking at manufacturing trades.

Reasons for Improvement

• Increased Skill

“… by reducing every man’s business to some one simple operation, necessarily increases very much the dexterity of the workman.”

A skilled smith can make 800 -1,000 nails per day while a 20 year old boy who has only made nails can make 2,300 nails per day. This happens even though both workmen have expertise in working with metal.

• Task Switching Reduced

“It is impossible to pass very quickly from one kind of work to another, that is carried on in a different place, and with quite different tools.”

When task switching, independent of skill, work is reduced. A man naturally drags his feet when starting a new task and usually the first few operations are careless.

• Machinery

“It is naturally to be expected, that of those employed should soon find out easier methods of performing their own work.”

Men doing the same simple task over and over again will discover easier ways to do it. Many times the men doing the work end up inventing the machine to replace them.

Division of Labour makes EVERYONE richer

“It is the greatest multiplication of the productions of all the different arts, [which creates] that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people.”

Looking at a simple garment, which even the poorest people afford, division of labour has created and improved it. A woolen coat is coarse, rough and owned by all day labourers. But the coat is made by a shepherd, a wool sorter, a wool comber, a dyer, a scribbler, a spinner, a weaver, a fuller, and a dresser. Then add in all the people who must be employed to transport goods. Plus all the people who built the ships to transport it and the people who made the tools the workers are using.

In summary, without assistance from many thousands even the poorest couldn’t have the clothes on their back.

“It may true, that the accommodation of an European prince does not always so much exceed that of an industrious and frugal peasant, as the accommodation of the latter (the peasant) exceeds that of many an African king, the absolute master of the lives and liberties of ten thousand naked savages.”

For the podcast summary of this chapter, listen to The Nerd Assassin Financial Friday.

In case you missed it, Chapter 2 is published.

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