Wealth of Nations Home
Book
I
Chapter
I
Chapter
II
Chapter
III
Chapter
VI
Chapter
V
Chapter
VI
Chapter
VII
Chapter
VIII
Chapter
IX
Chapter
X
Chapter
XI
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Chapter
II
OF THE
PRINCIPLE WHICH GIVES OCCASION
TO THE
DIVISION OF LABOUR
Vocabulary
for this chapter
Benevolence - An inclination to perform kind, charitable acts.
Occasion - A need created by a particular circumstance
Propensity
- An innate
inclination; a tendency.
Sagacity - The quality of being discerning, sound in judgment, and
farsighted; wisdom.
Chapter summary
This
chapter opens with the argument that the Division of Labour is not the
consequence of somebodies wisdom, but results in the propensity of
humans to to exchange goods. Smith finds no evidence of any animals in
nature (except for humans) where any bartering goes on. Rather animals
if they want something must beg to both humans and other animals if
they want something that somebody else has. (That or outright take it).
The difference between humans and animals is that animals can exist
independently in the wild, while humans need assistance from others,
but can not expect this assistance out of good will alone. He then
states that we do not get meat from a Butcher because we need the meat,
but because the butcher is looking out for his own self-interest and
wants what we have in return.
In a hunter-gather society, a man
may find that he is adept at making bows and arrows, and finds he can
trade these items to another hunter for meat. Soon this man realizes he
can get more meat by trading bows and arrows then if he went hunting,
and thus division of labor is founded out of self-interest. From that
the rest of the society begins to divide themselves up into varying
professions based on what each is good at. This chapter is concluded
with the remarks that while animals might have differing talents, those
differing talents are of no use to the other animals. With humans
however, those with vastly different talents are very useful to each
other.
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