Страница 1 из 2651

CHAPTER I. OF THE DIVISION OF LABOUR.

The greatest improvements in the productive powers of labour, and

the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment, with

which it is anywhere directed, or applied, seem to have been the

effects of the division of labour. The effects of the division of

labour, in the general business of society, will be more easily

understood, by considering in what manner it operates in some

particular manufactures. It is commonly supposed to be carried

furthest in some very trifling ones; not perhaps that it really

is carried further in them than in others of more importance: but

in those trifling manufactures which are destined to supply the

small wants of but a small number of people, the whole number of

workmen must necessarily be small; and those employed in every

different branch of the work can often be collected into the same

workhouse, and placed at once under the view of the spectator.