Economic Co-operation

Abstract

An isolated individual can consume only what he produces for himself; like Robinson Crusoe, he must turn his hand to many different activities, however unskilled he may be in some of them. A whole community, on the other hand, can practise a division of labour, under which each member specialises in a single line of production: between them, they will produce far more than an equivalent number of Crusoes. Thus, one of the advantages of living in society is that its members can enjoy a higher standard of living than if they remained outside it. The first extract from Adam Smith’s ‘The Wealth of, Nations’ (first published in 1776) is a classic exposition of the principle of specialisation.