He frequently exchanges them for cattle or for venison, with his companions;and he finds at last that he can in this manner get more cattle and venison, 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 he becomes a sort of armorer.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 neighbors, who reward him in the same manner with cattle and with venison, till at last he finds it his interest to dedicate himself entirely to this employment, and to become a sort of house carpenter.In the same manner a third becomes a smith or a brazier; a fourth a tanner or dresser of hides or skins, the principal part of the clothing of savages."If this be a true account of matters, it is evident, that it is the antecedent progress of invention, and the existence of the several arts of the bow-maker, the hunter, the carpenter, the brazier that is the real cause of the separation of the members of the society into artists of different sorts.I rather think, however, that it will be found, that separate artists have come to exist from the passage of individuals from one community to another, and their carrying with them the arts proper to each.If, for example, in any particular tribe, the art of reducing from the ore and working up some of the metals, were well known, and were chance to throw a member of it among another tribe ignorant of this art, he might come to employ himself altogether in the smelting and giving form to metal, and there might come to be a class, whose chief employment were that of working in metal.But it is of little consequence how the separation of employments was brought about.The real question is, do the acknowledged advantages of it proceed directly from the increased efficiency of the labor of the workman; or from the stock of instruments of the society being thus in much more constant employment, and its being, therefore, in the power of the accumulative principle to give them a much more effective construction.
The efficiency of the labor of the workman may be advanced, either by his dexterity being increased, or by an improvement in the construction of the implements with which he works.
1.As concerns his dexterity, it is to be noted that it is chiefly in the beginning of art that great manual dexterity is requisite.Then the hand is the great instrument.The manual dexterity of the savage in hurling his dart, or shooting with his bow and arrow, in guiding his canoe by the pole or paddle, in framing his fishing and hunting apparatus with the rude tools he possesses, far exceeds that necessary to the civilized man, not only in the common, but even in the more delicate arts of civilized life;and, were we to take into the account things generally confounded with manual dexterity, quickness and accuracy of sight, and delicacy and flexibility of the other organs, the disparity between the two would be much greater.
As art advances from its first rude elements, the hand does less, the instrument more.To acquire the manual dexterity necessary to guide a bark canoe with rapidity and speed, requires the practice of years.To row a boat equally well might be learned in a few months.The mere manual dexterity necessary to move the different pieces of mechanism that govern the motion of a steam boat, might be acquired in a few days or hours.
It may be remarked, that the examples of this dexterity adduced in the Wealth of Nations, are from arts where the implements are exceedingly simple, and where, of consequence, the hand is the great operator.Were improvements taking place in the art of pin-making, or nail-making, that would be done by the instrument which is now done by the quick and complex motions of the hand.In fact, in the arts in which the greatest improvements have had place, such as in the cotton manufacture, the mere manual dexterity requisite is very easily acquired.In a few weeks, or months, the limit is attained.But, when the manual dexterity requisite for the practice of any art can be attained in so short a time, it cannot matter much to the society or to the individual, whether the workman have to learn one or several arts.Besides, the acquisition of any difficult art very much facilitates the attainment of any other.The great matter is to get, as a workman expresses it, the use of one's hands.To become familiar, that is to say, with handling matters of various sorts, judging of their forms and qualities, and acquiring the power of determining the movement to be given, and the habit of executing it quickly and accurately.When this is acquired, there is no great difficulty in the management of any common tool, if once the principle on which it operates be understood.Hence a good workman in any trade, displays comparatively but trifling awkwardness in applying himself to any other.Almost all he requires is to know how a thing is done, and to understand how the implements employed operate.
This is very observable in the progress of new settlements in America, where I have seldom seen a good mechanic have much difficulty in turning his hand, as it is said, to any thing.
