Adam Smith proposed the division of labor, in the 18th century, as an instrument to achieve higher levels of productivity and efficiency in the economy.
The greatest advances in the faculties or productive principles of work, and the skill, expertise and success with which it is applied and directed in society do not seem to be the effects of any other cause than the division of labor itself. Adam Smith
For Smith the very objective of the economy was to know the laws that determined the wealth of nations, and in that effort he defended the thesis of the laisses faire - laissez passer in which the resources would be destined to the sectors that presented the most attractive to the Producers in this way, the production of an economy would be determined by the market requirements, likewise he pointed out that the optimization of the productivity of a company was related to the correct gear of the specialization processes of the workforce. This specialization known as division of labor would depend on the kind of product being manufactured.
In Chapter I of Investigating the Nature and Cause of the Wealth of Nations, Smith proposes the example of a pin factory to show what the division of labor in manufacturing consisted of and its benefits in terms of efficiency:
Let us take the example of a manufacturing of pure trifle, but whose division of labor in its operations is very vulgar the news, which is the work of the pin factory: an operator of these, not having been educated by principles in his trade (that the division of labor described as a different artifact) nor having any knowledge of the use of the machines used in it (whose invention was perhaps motivated by the division itself) could hardly finish, even if all its industry applied, one pin a day: at least it's true that he couldn't do twenty. But in the state in which this trade is found in the day, not only is the entire or total work of a pin a particular artifact, but also includes a certain number of branches, each of which constitutes a different and peculiar trade. One throws the metal or wire, another straightens it, another cuts it,the fourth sharpens it, the fifth prepares it to put its head; and the formation of this requires two or three different operations; placing it is another particular operation; whitening the entire pin is a different trade; and to place them neatly on the papers is very different: so the important business of making a pin comes to be divided into eighteen or more different operations: which in some things are forged by different hands, in others a single hand forms three or four different. I have seen a laboratory of this kind in which there were only ten men employed, each of whom therefore carried out two to three different operations on them. But although they were very poor, and very poorly equipped with the necessary machines, when they strained to work they made about twelve pounds of pins a day.In each pound there would be more than four thousand of medium magnitude; consequently these ten persons could make more than forty-eight thousand pins each day: the amount divided by ten would each have to make four thousand eight hundred a day. For if they had worked separately and independently, and without having been educated by principles in the peculiar trade of each, none certainly would have. I was able to manufacture twenty pins a day, and perhaps not even a single one.none certainly would have. I was able to manufacture twenty pins a day, and perhaps not even a single one.none certainly would have. I was able to manufacture twenty pins a day, and perhaps not even a single one.
But Arrighi (p.59) suggests that Smith not only proposed the division of labor as that in which tasks are divided, within a production unit, to obtain a more efficient result (technical division of labor); but, and more importantly, he proposed the division of labor between independent production units, connected by market exchanges, which has been known as the division of production and which, for example, Marx called "social division of labor".
Smith begins his story by illustrating with the example of the pin factory how division of labor improves the productive capacity of labor. Thereafter, however, he abandons the hidden abode of production to concentrate on the social division of labor (between the countryside and the city, or between different sectors and economic activities); in the market exchanges that connect specialized units in different economic activities; in the competition that fosters a greater division and specialization of labor between different branches of commerce and production; and in what governments can do to promote, regulate and take advantage of the synergy between competition and division of labor. (Arrighi, p.60)
Mattelart (p.83) explains that Smith proposed the following law: the higher the degree of improvement of a country, the greater the separation of jobs and trades. What in a "rough and under-cultivated society" is the work of one man, is the task of several in a "cultured state." And there are three factors that explain the improvement in productive capacity as work has been dividing: (1) The individual skill of each operator has increased; (2) that time that was previously lost in the passage from one operation to another has been saved; (3) Machines have been invented that shorten and facilitate work, and that enable one man to do the work of many.
According to Alcón (p.169), for Smith the needs of men can only be met in society, through exchange and division of labor. He also points out (p.176) that the advantages obtained with the division of labor affect all social classes, but that Smith especially appreciates the material benefits that the poor obtain from it and that he even criticizes those who considered, in his time, a danger to social stability, that the lower classes would gain access to a better situation and enjoy some luxuries.
In short, it can be said that for Smith a social optimum could be reached by resorting to freedom of trade and division of labor.
Bibliography
- Alcón Yustas, María Fuencisla. Adam Smith's political and legal thought: the idea of order in the human sphere, Universidad Pontifica Comillas, 1994 Arrighi, Giovanni. Adam Smith in Beijing, AKAL Editions, 2009 Mattelart, Armand. The invention of communication, Siglo XXI Editores, 1995
Notes
In: Investigation of the nature and cause of the wealth of the nations, p.7
