WEALTH OF NATIONS. 135 



he does, and hence both the quantity is augmented, and 

 the quality is improved of what his labour produces. The 

 origin of this division is the principle which makes men 

 exchange or barter their different possessions, and among 

 these their different powers. Either one differs from 

 another in his capacity, or each by confining his attention 

 to a single pursuit, acquires a peculiar capacity for that 

 pursuit. In either case, they who are differently quali- 

 fied will employ themselves differently, and one will ex- 

 change the produce of his labour with the other for the 

 produce of his ; or, which is the same thing, each will 

 work for the other, and both will thus be better served. 

 The extent of the market will always fix a limit to the 

 division of labour, which can have no great range in con- 

 fined situations; but where it is much divided, a vast 

 multitude of workmen will concur in producing a single 

 article of exchange. Dr. Smith mentions the case of 

 eighteen persons being employed in making a pin, and 

 being thus enabled to make 86,000 pins in a day, 

 or 4,800 each person; whereas had they worked alone, 

 perhaps they might not have been able to make one a- 

 piece. He adds, that the meanest individual of a civi- 

 lized country uses, or commands, in some small portion at 

 least, the labour of many thousands, and is thus better 

 accommodated than a savage chief, who wholly possesses 

 10,000 slaves, and has their lives and liberties at his 

 disposal. Among the beneficial effects, however, of the 

 division of labour, one is to save labour by different con- 

 trivances, and especially by the invention of machinery. 

 This in many instances, though by no means in all, im- 

 proves the quality of the article ; in all cases, it increases 

 its quantity. It therefore greatly augments the power of 

 labour. 



