(?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)
Adam Smith

“To take an example, therefore, from a very trifling manufacture, but one in which the division of labour has been very often taken notice of, the trade of a pin-maker: a workman not educated to this business (which the division of labour has rendered a distinct trade), nor acquainted with the use of the machinery employed in it (to the invention of which the same division of labour has probably given occasion), could scarce, perhaps, with his utmost industry, make one pin in a day, and certainly could not make twenty. But in the way in which this business is now carried on, not only the whole work is a peculiar trade, but it is divided into a number of branches, of which the greater part are likewise peculiar trades. One man draws out the wire; another straights it; a third cuts it; a fourth points it; a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head; to make the head requires two or three distinct operations; to put it on is a peculiar business; to whiten the pins is”

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Read more quotes from Adam Smith


Share this quote:
Share on Twitter

Friends Who Liked This Quote

To see what your friends thought of this quote, please sign up!


This Quote Is From

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
34,647 ratings, average rating, 1,433 reviews
Open Preview

Browse By Tag