From The Philosophy of Manufactures

Andrew Ure

Chapter 16 in Readings in the Economics of the Division of Labor:The Classical Tradition, 2005, pp 149-153 from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

Abstract: AbstractWhen Adam Smith wrote his immortal elements of economics, automatic machinery being hardly known, he was properly led to regard the division of labor as the grand principle of manufacturing improvement; and he showed, in the example of pin-making, how each handicraftsman, being thereby enabled to perfect himself by practice in one point, became a quicker and cheaper workman. In each branch of manufacture he saw that some parts were, on that principle, of easy execution, like the cutting of pin wires into uniform lengths, and some were comparatively difficult, like the formation and fixation of their heads; and therefore he concluded that to each a workman of appropriate value and cost was naturally assigned. This appropriation forms the very essence of the division of labor, and has been constantly made since the origin of society…

Keywords: Division of Labor; Specialization; Extent of the Market; Knowledge; Political Economy; History of Economic Thought; Increasing Returns; Equilibrium; Price System; Coordination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C1 C7 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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