An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
by Adam Smith
BOOK I. OF THE CAUSES OF IMPROVEMENT IN THE PRODUCTIVE
POWERS OF LABOUR, AND OF THE ORDER ACCORDING TO WHICH ITS PRODUCE IS NATURALLY DISTRIBUTED
AMONG THE DIFFERENT RANKS OF THE PEOPLE.
CHAPTER II.
OF THE PRINCIPLE WHICH GIVES OCCASION TO THE DIVISION OF LABOUR.
This division of labour, from which so many advantages are derived, is not originally
the effect of any human wisdom, which foresees and intends that general opulence to which
it gives occasion.
It is the necessary, though very slow and gradual, consequence of a certain propensity
in human nature, which has in view no such extensive utility; the propensity to truck,
barter, and exchange one thing for another.
Whether this propensity be one of those original principles in human nature, of which no further
account can be given, or whether, as seems more probable, it be the necessary consequence
of the faculties of reason and speech, it belongs not to our present subject to inquire.
It is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals, which seem to know
neither this nor any other species of contracts.
Two greyhounds, in running down the same hare, have sometimes the appearance of acting in
some sort of concert.
Each turns her towards his companion, or endeavours to intercept her when his companion turns
her towards himself.
This, however, is not the effect of any contract, but of the accidental concurrence of their
passions in the same object at that particular time.
Nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate exchange of one bone for another with another
dog.
Nobody ever saw one animal, by its gestures and natural cries signify to another, this
is mine, that yours; I am willing to give this for that.
When an animal wants to obtain something either of a man, or of another animal, it has no
other means of persuasion, but to gain the favour of those whose service it requires.
A puppy fawns upon its dam, and a spaniel endeavours, by a thousand attractions, to
engage the attention of its master who is at dinner, when it wants to be fed by him.
Man sometimes uses the same arts with his brethren, and when he has no other means of
engaging them to act according to his inclinations, endeavours by every servile and fawning attention
to obtain their good will.
He has not time, however, to do this upon every occasion.
In civilized society he stands at all times in need of the co-operation and assistance
of great multitudes, while his whole life is scarce sufficient to gain the friendship
of a few persons.
In almost every other race of animals, each individual, when it is grown up to maturity,
is entirely independent, and in its natural state has occasion for the assistance of no
other living creature.
But man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is in vain for
him to expect it from their benevolence only.
He will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self-love in his favour, and
shew them that it is for their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them.
Whoever offers to another a bargain of any kind, proposes to do this.
Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every
such offer; and it is in this manner that we obtain from one another the far greater
part of those good offices which we stand in need of.
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our
dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.
We address ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their self-love, and never talk to
them of our own necessities, but of their advantages.
Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens.
Even a beggar does not depend upon it entirely.
The charity of well-disposed people, indeed, supplies him with the whole fund of his subsistence.
But though this principle ultimately provides him with all the necessaries of life which
he has occasion for, it neither does nor can provide him with them as he has occasion for
them.
The greater part of his occasional wants are supplied in the same manner as those of other
people, by treaty, by barter, and by purchase.
With the money which one man gives him he purchases food.
The old clothes which another bestows upon him he exchanges for other clothes which suit
him better, or for lodging, or for food, or for money, with which he can buy either food,
clothes, or lodging, as he has occasion.
As it is by treaty, by barter, and by purchase, that we obtain from one another the greater
part of those mutual good offices which we stand in need of, so it is this same trucking
disposition which originally gives occasion to the division of labour.
In a tribe of hunters or shepherds, a particular person makes bows and arrows, for example,
with more readiness and dexterity than any other.
He frequently exchanges them for cattle or for venison, with his companions; and he finds
at last that he can, in this manner, get more cattle and venison, than if he himself went
to the field to catch them.
From a regard to his own interest, therefore, the making of bows and arrows grows to be
his chief business, and he becomes a sort of armourer.
Another excels in making the frames and covers of their little huts or moveable houses.
He is accustomed to be of use in this way to his neighbours, 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 grey-hound, or a grey-hound 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.
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