The Wealth Of Nations

Basing on the book of the famous economist Adam Smith (Scotland, 1723-1790) An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (chapters I; II; III; I), I will do my task explaining the main ideas of those chapters. Then, I will try to get a conclusion with my own arguments about what I learn reading this marvellous book about the analyzing of the beginning of the prosperity Great Britain and the Dutch Republic.

Adam Smith.

Before starting with my work, I think that it will be really interesting for the readers to know something about Adam Smith. He was born in Kirkcaldy, a small town in Scotland, in 1723. When he was fourteen (in 1737), he entered on the Glasgow College, where he met Francis Autcheson, the teacher of philosophy who influenced Smith in his ideas of economy and philosophy. When he got the graduation, he obtained also a scholarship to study at Balliol College. Between 1748 and 1751, he worked as teacher helper at Edinburgh, but after 1751, he started to work at the Glasgow College, as professorship in moral philosophy and Logic.

In 1763 he got the chance to travel to Europe, and in that trip, he met the many French philosophers and some famous Enlightenment philosophers, as Voltaire. But in 1776 he had to return to Great Britain, where he started to work in his own thesis about the economy, basing on what he studied with the philosophers of Europe. In 1778 he was proclaimed Director of Customs of Edinburgh, where he worked until his dead, and in 1787 he was proclaimed Chancellor of the Glasgow College. He died in 1790, when he was 67.

He published those works: The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and The Wealth of Nations (1776), the first book about the Modern Economy. Adam Smith developed many theories, but in the chapters that I read it, he explains his theory about the Division of Labour and he also developed his idea about the natural order.

Now, as I have finished speaking about Adam Smith, I am going to start with my work, where I will try to explain all the ideas of the different chapters to understand better what this economist is trying to explain to us.

I think that the better why to explain the book, is doing a summarizing of the different chapters that I read it; before starting, I have to emphasise that I did not read all the work of the economist; I read only some chapters, and I will explain only them: the ones that explain the Division of Labour.

Chapter I: Of the Division of Labour.

In this chapter, Adam Smith explains what the Division of Labour is and how it works. He says that the greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour seems to have been the effects of the Division of Labour, explaining in other words: the development of any country or in any manufactures is because of that division. But, what it is? The Division of Labour is the separation of a work process into a number of tasks, with each task performed by a separate person or group of persons (Britannica Academic Edition).

The common thing is to believe that the division has much importance at small manufactures, because we can see easily in those kinds of works that everybody has a different speciality, but is not true. At any kind of manufactures the division of labour exist; the problem is that in some of them it is not so obvious and, as consequence, is not so observed.

So, now we know what this division is, but how it works? Because the main objective of the division is to get the developed, and for that each person has to have a different special task at work, but how a person can decided to specialise in something? We are not better or worse at work, we are all capable to do any job, but we prefer to do something and specialized in a single task. Adam Smith thought that this is because of three different circumstances:

1.- The ability of the workman: If a person has only a job at the workhouse, he is going to specialized only in doing that work, so his dexterity will improve and finally he will do that work in less time that at the beginning.

2.- The saving of time: If a workman has to do more than one work and if, in addition, he has to move to different places to do that different task, he will lose a lot of precious time that he can invest only in a job. Also, we have to take account that a workman that has to start a new job, is not really certain of his task, so his work would not be effective at all.

3.- The develop of machinery: This circumstance is really obvious, because with the improvement of machinery, a workman has less tasks to do and the production will be higher than doing by hand. The workman has only to focus his job in one work and he will specialize in that machine, so he will be able to improve them and to increase the production.

I have to say that I am agree with the explanation of Adam Smith: it is true that if a person has only a job, he will be the best doing that job and maybe from that specialized does the prosperity came. But in my opinion a person would not be agree by doing only a task for the rest of his life and it will be understandable. As a example: if you work on a plant and your unique task is to close boxes, maybe you will become the greatest person in the world closing boxes, but one day you will ask to yourself what are you doing, because you will know that you are unable to do anything except to close boxes.

Chapter II: of the principle which gives occasion to the Division of Labour.

In this chapter, the economist explains that the division is not the consequence of the human knowledge; humans are not able to anticipate what is going to happen or what the way to improve is. The division is the consequence of the necessity of humans to truck, barter and exchange object with others.

If we need something, and this is a fact that happens since the beginning of the history, we will persuade somebody to get what we want: give me that which I want, and you shall have this which you want. This is the beginning of any offer. I will explain using the example of different tribes: if tribe A produces meet, and tribe B produces arrows, they will exchange their objects at any time as they need, what will be happen whit this? That tribe A will specialized in meet and tribe B in arrows: the beginning of the Division of Labour. But there is an important point that we have to know and never forget: nobody, not even a beggar, depends entirely of another: we do not choose that.

But how does the

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