Wealth of Nations Home
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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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