An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of

19

Adam Smith

interest their self-love in his favour, and shew them that it is for

their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them.

Whoever offers to another a bargain of any kind, proposes to do

this. Give me that which I want, and you shall have this which

you want, is the meaning of every such offer; and it is in this

manner that we obtain from one another the far greater part of

those good offices which we stand in need of. It is not from the

benevolence of the butcher the brewer, or the baker that we expect

our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We ad-

dress ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their self-love, and

never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages.

Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevo-

lence of his fellow-citizens. Even a beggar does not depend upon

it entirely. The charity of well-disposed people, indeed, supplies

him with the whole fund of his subsistence. But though this prin-

ciple ultimately provides him with all the necessaries of life which

he has occasion for, it neither does nor can provide him with them

as he has occasion for them. The greater part of his occasional

wants are supplied in the same manner as those of other people,

by treaty, by barter, and by purchase. With the money which one

man gives him he purchases food. The old clothes which another

bestows upon him he exchanges for other clothes which suit him

better, or for lodging, or for food, or for money, with which he

can buy either food, clothes, or lodging, as he has occasion.

As it is by treaty, by barter, and by purchase, that we obtain

from one another the greater part of those mutual good offices

which we stand in need of, so it is this same trucking disposition

which originally gives occasion to the division of labour. In a tribe

of hunters or shepherds, a particular person makes bows and ar-

rows, for example, with more readiness and dexterity than any

other. He frequently exchanges them for cattle or for venison, with

his companions; and he finds at last that he can, in this manner,

get more cattle and venison, than if he himself went to the field to

catch them. From a regard to his own interest, therefore, the mak-

ing of bows and arrows grows to be his chief business, and he

becomes a sort of armourer. Another excels in making the frames

and covers of their little huts or moveable houses. He is accus-

tomed to be of use in this way to his neighbours, who reward him

in the same manner with cattle and with venison, till at last he

finds it his interest to dedicate himself entirely to this employ-

ment, and to become a sort of house-carpenter. In the same man-

ner a third becomes a smith or a brazier; a fourth, a tanner or

dresser of hides or skins, the principal part of the clothing of sav-

ages. And thus the certainty of being able to exchange all that

surplus part of the produce of his own labour, which is over and

above his own consumption, for such parts of the produce of other

---

20

The Wealth of Nations

men’s labour as he may have occasion for, encourages every man

to apply himself to a particular occupation, and to cultivate and

bring to perfection whatever talent of genius he may possess for

that particular species of business.

The difference of natural talents in different men, is, in reality,

much less than we are aware of; and the very different genius which

appears to distinguish men of different professions, when grown

up to maturity, is not upon many occasions so much the cause, as

the effect of the division of labour. The difference between the

most dissimilar characters, between a philosopher and a common

street porter, for example, seems to arise not so much from nature,

as from habit, custom, and education. When they came in to the

world, and for the first six or eight years of their existence, they

were, perhaps, very much alike, and neither their parents nor play-

fellows could perceive any remarkable difference. About that age,

or soon after, they come to be employed in very different occupa-

tions. The difference of talents comes then to be taken notice of,

and widens by degrees, till at last the vanity of the philosopher is

willing to acknowledge scarce any resemblance. But without the

disposition to truck, barter, and exchange, every man must have

procured to himself every necessary and conveniency of life which

he wanted. All must have had the same duties to perform, and the

same work to do, and there could have been no such difference of

employment as could alone give occasion to any great difference

of talents.

As it is this disposition which forms that difference of talents, so

remarkable among men of different professions, so it is this same

disposition which renders that difference useful. Many tribes of

animals, acknowledged to be all of the same species, derive from

nature a much more remarkable distinction of genius, than what,

antecedent to custom and education, appears to take place among

men. By nature a philosopher is not in genius and disposition half

so different from a street porter, as a mastiff is from a grey-hound,

or a grey-hound from a spaniel, or this last from a shepherd’s dog.

Those different tribes of animals, however, though all of the same

species are of scarce any use to one another. The strength of the

mastiff is not in the least supported either by the swiftness of the

greyhound, or by the sagacity of the spaniel, or by the docility of

the shepherd’s dog. The effects of those different geniuses and tal-

ents, for want of the power or disposition to barter and exchange,

cannot be brought into a common stock, and do not in the least

contribute to the better accommodation and conveniency of the

species. Each animal is still obliged to support and defend itself,

separately and independently, and derives no sort of advantage

from that variety of talents with which nature has distinguished

its fellows. Among men, on the contrary, the most dissimilar ge-

---