and he finds at last that he can in this manner get CHAP. more cattle and venifon, than if he himself went to the field to catch them. From a regard to his own interest, therefore, the making of bows and arrows grows to be his chief business, and II. he becomes a fort of armourer, Another excels in making the frames and covers of their little huts or moveable houses. He is accustomed to be of use in this way to his neighbours, who reward him in the fame manner with cattle and with venifon, till at last he finds it his interest to dedicate himself entirely to this employment, and to become a fort of house-carpenter. In the fame manner a third becomes a smith or a brazier; a fourth a tanner or dreffer of hides or fkins, the principal part of the clothing of favages. And thus the certainty of being able to exchange all that surplus part of the produce of his own labour, which is over and above his own consumption, for such parts of the produce of other men's labour as he may have occafion for, encourages every man to apply himself to a particular occupation, and to cultivate and bring to perfection whatever talent or genius he may possess for that particular species of business. The difference of natural talents in different men is, in reality, much less than we are aware of; and the very different genius which appears to diftinguish men of different profeffions, when grown up to maturity, is not upon many occafions so much the cause, as the effect of the divifion of labour. The difference between the moft C4 воок most dissimilar characters, between a philosopher. I and a common ftreet porter, for example, seems to arife not fo much from nature, as from habit, custom, and education. When they came into the world, and for the first fix or eight years of their existence, they were, perhaps, very much alike, and neither their parents nor playfellows could perceive any remarkable difference. About that age, or foon after, they come to be employed in very different occupations. The difference of talents comes then to be taken notice of, and widens by degrees, till at last the vanity of the philosopher is willing to acknowledge scarce any resemblance. But without the difpofition to truck, barter, and exchange, every man must have procured to himself every neceffary and conveniency of life which he wanted. All must have had the fame duties to perform, and the fame work to do, and there could have been no fuch difference of employment as could alone give occafion to any great difference of talent. As it is this disposition which forms that dif ference of talents, fo remarkable among men of different profeffions, so it is this fame disposition which renders that difference useful. Many tribes of animals acknowledged to be all of the same species, derive from nature a much more remarkable distinction of genius, than what, antecedent to custom and education, appears to take place among men. By nature a philofopher is not in genius and difpofition half so different from a street porter, as a mastiff is from a grey II. greyhound, or a greyhound from a spaniel, or CHAP. this last from a fhepherd's dog. Those different tribes of animals, however, though all of the same species, are of scarce any use to one another. The strength of the mastiff is not in the least supported either by the swiftness of the greyhound, or by the fagacity of the spaniel, or by the docility of the shepherd's dog. The effects of those different geniufes and talents, for want of the power or difpofition to barter and exchange, cannot be brought into a common stock, and do not in the least contribute to the better accommodation and conveniency of the species. Each animal is still obliged to fupport and defend itself, separately and inde. pendently, and derives no fort of advantage from that variety of talents with which nature has diftinguished its fellows. Among men, on the contrary, the most diffimilar geniufes are of ufe to one another; the different produces of their respective talents, by the general difpofition to truck, barter, and exchange, being brought, as it were, into a common stock, where every man may purchase whatever part of the produce of other men's talents he has occafion for, CHAP. BOOK CHAP. III. That the Division of Labour is limited by the A There are fome forts of industry, even of the lowest kind, which can be carried on no where but in a great town. A porter, for example, can find employment and fubfiftence in no other place. A village is by much too narrow a sphere for him; even an ordinary market town is scarce large enough to afford him conftant occupation. In the lone houses and very small villages which are scattered about in so defert a country as the Highlands of Scotland, every farmer must be butcher, baker and brewer for his own family. In fuch situations we can scarce expect to find even a smith, a carpenter, or a mason, within less than twenty miles of another of the fame trade. The scattered families that II. live at eight or ten miles distance from the CHAP. nearest of them, must learn to perform them. selves a great number of little pieces of work, for which, in more populous countries, they would call in the assistance of those workmen. Country workmen are almost every where obliged to apply themselves to all the different branches of industry that have so much affinity to one another as to be employed about the fame fort of materials. A country carpenter deals in every fort of work that is made of wood: a country smith in every fort of work that is made of iron. The former is not only a carpenter, but a joiner, a cabinet maker, and even a carver in wood, as well as a wheelwright, a plough-wright, a cart and waggon maker. The employments of the latter are still more various. It is impossible there should be fuch a trade as even that of a nailer in the remote and inland parts of the Highlands of Scotland. Such a workman at the rate of a thousand nails a day, and three hundred working days in the year, will make three hundred thousand nails in the year. But in fuch a situation it would be impoffible to difpofe of one thousand, that is, of one day's work in the year. As by means of water-carriage a more extenfive market is open to every fort of industry than what land-carriage alone can afford it, so it is upon the fea-coaft, and along the banks of navigable rivers, that industry of every kind naturally begins to fubdivide and improve itself, and it is frequently not till a long time after that thofe |