An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (ebook reader with highlighter txt) 📖

who reward him in

the same manner with cattle and with venison, till at last he finds it his

interest to dedicate himself entirely to this employment, and to become a

sort of house-carpenter. In the same manner a third becomes a smith or a

brazier; a fourth, a tanner or dresser of hides or skins, the principal part

of the clothing of savages. And thus the certainty of being able to exchange

all that surplus part of the produce of his own labour, which is over and

above his own consumption, for such parts of the produce of other men’s

labour as he may have occasion for, encourages every man to apply himself to

a particular occupation, and to cultivate and bring to perfection whatever

talent of genius he may possess for that particular species of business.

 

The difference of natural talents in different men, is, in reality, much less

than we are aware of ; and the very different genius which appears to

distinguish men of different professions, when grown up to maturity, is not

upon many occasions so much the cause, as the effect of the division of

labour. The difference between the most dissimilar characters, between a

philosopher and a common street porter, for example, seems to arise not so

much from nature, as from habit, custom, and education. When they came in to

the world, and for the first six or eight years of their existence, they

were, perhaps, very much alike, and neither their parents nor play-fellows

could perceive any remarkable difference. About that age, or soon after,

they come to be employed in very different occupations. The difference of

talents comes then to be taken notice of, and widens by degrees, till at

last the vanity of the philosopher is willing to acknowledge scarce any

resemblance. But without the disposition to truck, barter, and exchange,

every man must have procured to himself every necessary and conveniency of

life which he wanted. All must have had the same duties to perform, and the

same work to do, and there could have been no such difference of employment

as could alone give occasion to any great difference of talents.

 

As it is this disposition which forms that difference of talents, so

remarkable among men of different professions, so it is this same

disposition which renders that difference useful. Many tribes of animals,

acknowledged to be all of the same species, derive from nature a much more

remarkable distinction of genius, than what, antecedent to custom and

education, appears to take place among men. By nature a philosopher is not

in genius and disposition half so different from a street porter, as a

mastiff is from a greyhound, or a greyhound from a spaniel, or this last

from a shepherd’s dog. Those different tribes of animals, however, though

all of the same species are of scarce any use to one another. The strength

of the mastiff is not in the least supported either by the swiftness of the

greyhound, or by the sagacity of the spaniel, or by the docility of the

shepherd’s dog. The effects of those different geniuses and talents, for

want of the power or disposition to barter and exchange, cannot be brought

into a common stock, and do not in the least contribute to the better

accommodation and conveniency of the species. Each animal is still obliged

to support and defend itself, separately and independently, and derives no

sort of advantage from that variety of talents with which nature has

distinguished its fellows. Among men, on the contrary, the most dissimilar

geniuses are of use to one another ; the different produces of their

respective talents, by the general disposition to truck, barter, and

exchange, being brought, as it were, into a common stock, where every man

may purchase whatever part of the produce of other men’s talents he has

occasion for,

 

CHAPTER III.

 

THAT THE DIVISION OF LABOUR IS LIMITED BY THE EXTENT OF THE MARKET.

 

As it is the power of exchanging that gives occasion to the division of labour, so the extent of

this division must always be limited by the extent of that power, or, in other words, by the

extent of the market. When the market is very small, no person can have any encouragement

to dedicate himself entirely to one employment, for want of the power to exchange all that

surplus part of the produce of his own labour, which is over and above his own consumption,

for such parts of the produce of other men’s labour as he has occasion for.

 

There are some sorts of industry, even of the lowest kind, which can be carried on nowhere

but in a great town. A porter, for example, can find employment and subsistence in no other

place. A village is by much too narrow a sphere for him; even an ordinary market-town is

scarce large enough to afford him constant occupation. In the lone houses and very small

villages which are scattered about in so desert a country as the highlands of Scotland, every

farmer must be butcher, baker, and brewer, for his own family. In such situations we can

scarce expect to find even a smith, a carpenter, or a mason, within less than twenty miles of

another of the same trade. The scattered families that live at eight or ten miles distance from

the nearest of them, must learn to perform themselves a great number of little pieces of work,

for which, in more populous countries, they would call in the assistance of those workmen.

Country workmen are almost everywhere obliged to apply themselves to all the different

branches of industry that have so much affinity to one another as to be employed about the

same sort of materials. A country carpenter deals in every sort of work that is made of wood ;

a country smith in every sort of work that is made of iron. The former is not only a carpenter,

but a joiner, a cabinet-maker, and even a carver in wood, as well as a wheelwright, a

ploughwright, a cart and waggon-maker. The employments of the latter are still more

various. It is impossible there should be such a trade as even that of a nailer in the remote and

inland parts of the highlands of Scotland. Such a workman at the rate of a thousand nails

a-day, and three hundred working days in the year, will make three hundred thousand nails in

the year. But in such a situation it would be impossible to dispose of one thousand, that is, of

one day’s work in the year. As by means of water-carriage, a more extensive market is opened

to every sort of industry than what land-carriage alone can afford it, so it is upon the sea-coast,

and along the banks of navigable rivers, that industry of every kind naturally begins to

subdivide and improve itself, and it is frequently not till a long time after that those

improvements extend themselves to the inland parts of the country. A broad-wheeled waggon,

attended by two men, and drawn by eight horses, in about six weeks time, carries and brings

back between London and Edinburgh near four ton weight of goods. In about the same time a

ship navigated by six or eight men, and sailing between the ports of London and Leith,

frequently carries and brings back two hundred ton weight of goods. Six or eight men,

therefore, by the help of water-carriage, can carry and bring back, in the same time, the same

quantity of goods between London and Edinburgh as fifty broad-wheeled waggons, attended

by a hundred men, and drawn by four hundred horses. Upon two hundred tons of goods,

therefore, carried by the cheapest land-carriage from London to Edinburgh, there must be

charged the maintenance of a hundred men for three weeks, and both the maintenance and

what is nearly equal to maintenance the wear and tear of four hundred horses, as well as of

fifty great waggons. Whereas, upon the same quantity of goods carried by water, there is to be

charged only the maintenance of six or eight men, and the wear and tear of a ship of two

hundred tons burthen, together with the value of the superior risk, or the difference of the

insurance between land and water-carriage. Were there no other communication between

those two places, therefore, but by land-carriage, as no goods could be transported from the

one to the other, except such whose price was very considerable in proportion to their weight,

they could carry on but a small part of that commerce which at present subsists between them,

and consequently could give but a small part of that encouragement which they at present

mutually afford to each other’s industry. There could be little or no commerce of any kind

between the distant parts of the world. What goods could bear the expense of land-carriage

between London and Calcutta ? Or if there were any so precious as to be able to support this

expense, with what safety could they be transported through the territories of so many

barbarous nations? Those two cities, however, at present carry on a very considerable

commerce with each other, and by mutually affording a market, give a good deal of

encouragement to each other’s industry.

 

Since such, therefore, are the advantages of water-carriage, it is natural that the first

improvements of art and industry should be made where this conveniency opens the whole

world for a market to the produce of every sort of labour, and that they should always be

much later in extending themselves into the inland parts of the country. The inland parts of the

country can for a long time have no other market for the greater part of their goods, but the

country which lies round about them, and separates them from the sea-coast, and the great

navigable rivers. The extent of the market, therefore, must for a long time be in proportion to

the riches and populousness of that country, and consequently their improvement must always

be posterior to the improvement of that country. In our North American colonies, the

plantations have constantly followed either the sea-coast or the banks of the navigable rivers,

and have scarce anywhere extended themselves to any considerable distance from both.

 

The nations that, according to the best authenticated history, appear to have been first

civilized, were those that dwelt round the coast of the Mediterranean sea. That sea, by far the

greatest inlet that is known in the world, having no tides, nor consequently any waves, except

such as are caused by the wind only, was, by the smoothness of its surface, as well as by the

multitude of its islands, and the proximity of its neighbouring shores, extremely favourable to

the infant navigation of the world; when, from their ignorance of the compass, men were

afraid to quit the view of the coast, and from the imperfection of the art of ship-building, to

abandon themselves to the boisterous waves of the ocean. To pass beyond the pillars of

Hercules, that is, to sail out of the straits of Gibraltar, was, in the ancient world, long

considered as a most wonderful and dangerous exploit of navigation. It was late before even

the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, the most skilful navigators and ship-builders of those old

times, attempted it; and they were, for a long time, the only nations that did attempt it.

 

Of all the countries on the coast of the Mediterranean sea, Egypt seems to have been the first

in which either agriculture or manufactures were cultivated and improved to any considerable

degree. Upper Egypt extends itself nowhere above a few miles from the Nile; and in Lower

Egypt, that great river breaks itself into many different canals, which, with the assistance of a

little art, seem to have afforded a communication by water-carriage,