miserably poor that, from mere want, they are frequently reduced,
or, at least, think themselves reduced, to the necessity
sometimes of directly destroying, and sometimes of abandoning
their infants, their old people, and those afflicted with
lingering diseases, to perish with hunger, or to be devoured by
wild beasts. Among civilised and thriving nations, on the
contrary, though a great number of people do not labour at all,
many of whom consume the produce of ten times, frequently of a
hundred times more labour than the greater part of those who
work; yet the produce of the whole labour of the society is so
great that all are often abundantly supplied, and a workman, even
of the lowest and poorest order, if he is frugal and industrious,
may enjoy a greater share of the necessaries and conveniences of
life than it is possible for any savage to acquire.
The causes of this improvement, in the productive powers of
labour, and the order, according to which its produce is
naturally distributed among the different ranks and conditions of
men in the society, make the subject of the first book of this
Inquiry.
Whatever be the actual state of the skill, dexterity, and
judgment with which labour is applied in any nation, the
abundance or scantiness of its annual supply must depend, during
the continuance of that state, upon the proportion between the
number of those who are annually employed in useful labour, and
that of those who are not so employed. The number of useful and
productive labourers, it will hereafter appear, is everywhere in
proportion to the quantity of capital stock which is employed in
setting them to work, and to the particular way in which it is so
employed. The second book, therefore, treats of the nature of
capital stock, of the manner in which it is gradually
accumulated, and of the different quantities of labour which it
puts into motion, according to the different ways in which it is
employed.
Nations tolerably well advanced as to skill, dexterity, and
judgment, in the application of labour, have followed very
different plans in the general conduct or direction of it; those
plans have not all been equally favourable to the greatness of
its produce. The policy of some nations has given extraordinary
encouragement to the industry of the country; that of others to
the industry of towns. Scarce any nation has dealt equally and
impartially with every sort of industry. Since the downfall of
the Roman empire, the policy of Europe has been more favourable
to arts, manufactures, and commerce, the industry of towns, than
to agriculture, the industry of the country. The circumstances
which seem to have introduced and established this policy are
explained in the third book.
Though those different plans were, perhaps, first introduced
by the private interests and prejudices of particular orders of
men, without any regard to, or foresight of, their consequences
upon the general welfare of the society; yet they have given
occasion to very different theories of political economy; of
which some magnify the importance of that industry which is
carried on in towns, others of that which is carried on in the
country. Those theories have had a considerable influence, not
only upon the opinions of men of learning, but upon the public
conduct of princes and sovereign states. I have endeavoured, in
the fourth book, to explain, as fully and distinctly as I can,
those different theories, and the principal effects which they
have produced in different ages and nations.
To explain in what has consisted the revenue of the great
body of the people, or what has been the nature of those funds
which, in different ages and nations, have supplied their annual
consumption, is the object of these four first books. The fifth
and last book treats of the revenue of the sovereign, or
commonwealth. In this book I have endeavoured to show, first,
what are the necessary expenses of the sovereign, or
commonwealth; which of those expenses ought to be defrayed by the
general contribution of the whole society; and which of them by
that of some particular part only, or of some particular members
of it: secondly, what are the different methods in which the
whole society may be made to contribute towards defraying the
expenses incumbent on the whole society, and what are the
principal advantages and inconveniences of each of those methods:
and, thirdly and lastly, what are the reasons and causes which
have induced almost all modern governments to mortgage some part
of this revenue, or to contract debts, and what have been the
effects of those debts upon the real wealth, the annual produce
of the land and labour of the society.
BOOK ONE
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 I
Of the Division of Labour
THE greatest improvement 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. In
those great manufactures, on the contrary, which are destined to
supply the great wants of the great body of the people, every
different branch of the work employs so great a number of workmen
that it is impossible to collect them all into the same
workhouse. We can seldom see more, at one time, than those
employed in one single branch. Though in such manufactures,
therefore, the work may really be divided into a much greater
number of parts than in those of a more trifling nature, the
division is not near so obvious, and has accordingly been much
less observed.
To take an example, therefore, from a very trifling
manufacture; but one in which the division of labour has been
very often taken notice of, the trade of the pin-maker; a workman
not educated to this business (which the division of labour has
rendered a distinct trade), nor acquainted with the use of the
machinery employed in it (to the invention of which the same
division of labour has probably given occasion), could scarce,
perhaps, with his utmost industry, make one pin in a day, and
certainly could not make twenty. But in the way in which this
business is now carried on, not only the whole work is a peculiar
trade, but it is divided into a number of branches, of which the
greater part are likewise peculiar trades. One man draws out the
wire, another straights it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it,
a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving, the head; to make the
head requires two or three distinct operations; to put it on is a。