Adam Smith Flashcards

Question

Why is Division of Labour carried out in less important production processes?

Answer 1

DoL is supposed to be carried furthest in very trivial production processes, as opposed to it being carried further in processes of higher importance. This is because the unimportant ones cater for fewer people. They are “destined to supply the small wants of but a small number of people”. Therefore those employed in the different branches of the production process can often be collected into the same workhouse, and thus placed under one view of the spectator.

Answer 2

The pin-making industry, which can be divided into 18 different operations

Answer 3

A workman is not educated to this business, nor acquainted with the use of machinery employed in it. He could barely, perhaps, make 1 pin in a day, but certainly not 20. The way in which the business is now carried on is by being divided into a number of branches, of which most are likewise peculiar trades (the way its divided is rather peculiar). Making a pin comes to a division of about 18 distinct operations. In some manufactories all are performed by different hands, though in others the same man will sometimes perform 2 or 3 of them.

Answer 4

A small manufactory of this kind where ten men were employed. Some of them consequently performed 2 or 3 different operations. Though they were very poor and used machinery with a lack of interest; when they exerted themselves they could make around 12lbs of pins in a day. There were around 4000 pins in a lb; and therefore they were making upwards of 48,000 pins in a day. As there were 10 people it could be said that they could make 4800 pins daily. However if they all did it separately and independently Smith thinks “they certainly could not each of them have made twenty, perhaps not one pin in a day”. This is because they had not been educated in this peculiar business. Therefore, they are only “at present capable of performing, in consequence of a proper division and combination of their different operations.”

Answer 5

In every other art and manufacture, the effects of DoL is similar to the pin-making industry. However, in many of them, labour cannot be so much divided or reduced to such simple operations.

Answer 6

In every improved society the farmer is nothing but a farmer, and the manufacturer nothing but a manufacturer. But the labour needed for one complete manufacture is always divided among a great number of hands

Answer 7

The nature of agriculture doesn’t submit so many divisions of labour, nor do they complete a separation of one business to another. It is impossible to separate so entirely, the business of the grazier from that of the corn-farmer, as the trade of the carpenter is commonly separated from that of the smith. o The spinner is almost always a distinct person from the weaver; but the ploughman, the harrower, the sower of the seed, and the reaper of the corn, are often the same. The impossibility of making complete and entire separations is probably why the improvement of the productive powers of labour in agriculture do not always keep pace with their improvement in manufactures.

Answer 8

• This separation too is generally carried furthest in countries enjoying the highest degree of industry and improvement. The work of one man in an undeveloped country is equivalent to several in an improved one.