Earth and brought to him perhaps by a long sea and a

earth, and brought to him, perhaps, by a long sea and a long land-carriage, all
the other utensils of his kitchen, all the furniture of his table, the knives and
forks, the earthen or pewter plates upon which he serves up and divides his
victuals, the different hands employed in prepar- ing his bread and his beer,
the glass window which lets in the heat and the light, and keeps out the wind
and the rain, with all the knowledge and art requisite for preparing that
beautiful and happy invention, without which these northern parts of the
world could scarce have afforded a very comfortable habitation, together with
the tools of all the different workmen employed in producing those different
conveniencies; if we examine, I say, all these things, and consider what a
variety of labour is employed about each of them, we shall be sensible that,
without the assistance and co-operation of many thousands, the very meanest
person in a civilized country could not be provided, even according to, what
we very falsely imagine, the easy and simple manner in which he is
commonly accommodated. Compared, indeed, with the more extravagant
luxury of the great, his accommodation must no doubt appear extremely
simple and easy; and yet it may be true, perhaps, that the accommodation of
an European prince does not always so much exceed that of an industrious

10
and frugal peasant, as the ac- commodation of the latter exceeds that of many
an African king, the absolute masters of the lives and liberties of ten thousand
na- ked savages.
Adam Smith
17

11
CHAPTER II
OF THE PRINCIPLE WHICH GIVES OC- CASION TO
THE DIVISION OF LABOUR
T
HIS DIVISION OF LABOUR
, from which so many advantages are de- rived, is not
originally the effect of any human wisdom, which foresees and intends that
general opulence to which it gives occa- sion. It is the necessary, though very
slow and gradual, consequence of a certain propensity in human nature,
which has in view no such extensive utility; the propensity to truck, barter,
and exchange one thing for another.
Whether this propensity be one of those original principles in human nature,
of which no further account can be given, or whether, as seems more
probable, it be the necessary consequence of the faculties of reason and
speech, it belongs not to our present subject to inquire. It is common to all
men, and to be found in no other race of animals, which seem to know neither
this nor any other species of contracts. Two greyhounds, in running down the
same hare, have sometimes the appearance of acting in some sort of concert.
Each turns her towards his companion, or endeavours to intercept her when
his companion turns her towards himself. This, however, is not the effect of
any contract, but of the acci-
dental concurrence of their passions in the same object at that particular time.