The exercise of the arts of the weaver, the blacksmith, the carpenter, the farmer, implies the existence of a great variety of tools with which they may be carried on.But, as a man can only do one thing at once, if any man bad all the tools which these several occupations require, at least three fourths of them would constantly lie idle and useless.It were clearly then better, were any society to exist where each man had all these tools, and alternately carried on each of these occupations, that the members of it should if possible divide them amongst them, each restricting himself to some particular employment.There would then be no superfluous implements, each set of tools would form an instrument ranch more speedily exhausted, arid therefore of an order of quicker return than before.In cases where this could be done, common sense would point out the advantage of it.When, for instance, a man's loom came to be worn out, he would go to his neighbor and say, "I shall not make another loom if you will undertake to do what weaving I may require; in return I will give you some of the produce of my farm, or will do some blacksmith work for you." The offer would be accepted, and similar motives operating throughout the society, each individual in it would confine his industry, as far as possible, to the employment of some particular set of tools or instruments.It is not perhaps likely, that this was the manner in which that division of occupations with which we are now familiar was originally produced, but it must evidently have been produced in this way, had it not been otherwise brought to pass, as we see, in fact, that even now it is thus brought to pass in the progress of settlements in North America.In such situations, every man is at first probably obliged to be his own carpenter, glazier, tanner, cobbler, and perhaps to a certain extent his own blacksmith.As the settlement fills up, and the population becomes sufficiently dense, lie gives up this multifarious industry, and takes to some particular branch.The advantages of the change to the whole community, and therefore to every individual in it, are great.
In the first place, the various implements being in constant employment yield a better return for what has been laid out in procuring them; being sooner exhausted they pass to a more quickly returning order.In consequence, their owners can afford to have them of better quality and more complete construction; the effective desire of accumulation carries them on to a class correspondent to its own strength.The result of both events is, that a larger provision is made for the future wants of the whole society.
Such a revolution can only have place, where the individuals exercising the different employments, have a ready communication with each other.
In situations where they cannot easily communicate, either from distance, or difficulty of transit, such exchanges cannot take place.If a man had to go twenty miles for every little piece of carpenter work that lie wished executed, it were better for him to keep a few carpenter tools of his own.
Neither is it likely to take place extensively unless where the accumulative principle has considerable strength, and where, consequently, a large amount of labor is wrought up in the several implements in use.Where, as in Hindostan, the loom is merely a few sticks, it would save one individual very little to employ another to weave for him.It is accordingly, in countries where the population is most dense, the facility of communication greatest, and instruments wrought up to the more slowly returning orders, that employments are most divided.
As a division of employments implies the existence of exchange or barter, so, as it extends, these exchanges become necessarily more frequent.Every man, to procure the supply of his various wants, has to employ the services of more individuals than he had before.
The farmer, who used to manufacture his own cloth from his own fleeces, transfers these to some one else, and perhaps, after they have passed through the hands of the carder, the spinner, the weaver, the fuller, etc.part of them returns to him again in the shape of cloth for some garment that he is in need of.In an advanced state of society, very few wants are supplied but by articles or instruments which have passed through many bands.We can scarce then fitly pursue our subject, without some examination of the manner in which these exchanges take place, and of the rules by which they are regulated.
As all instruments exist solely to supply wants, so any man will consent to receive an instrument in exchange, or expect to give it in exchange, only as it is a means of supplying wants.
It is the business of every man to adopt the readiest and easiest means he can devise to supply all coming needs, and it is solely because the medium of barter presents the readiest means of effecting this end, that he adopts it.
But labor is the fund which all men have, out of which to supply their wants.Some have other funds besides, but every man has this, and strip a man of every thing adventitious, this alone remains to him, it is this, then, which a person may most fitly be said to expend, in provision for any future want.When one man exchanges this for that, he may be said to give the labor which he has expended on this, for the labor which has been expended on that, and labor for labor would seem to be the roost simple of exchanges.It never, as we shall see, exactly takes place, but sometimes it is nearly approximated to, and, that we may set out from the most simple elements, we may suppose that it is actually arrived at.
