Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” was an outstanding piece of work both for the fields of Sociology and Economics when it was published in the late seventeenth hundred. In this masterpiece Smith talks of the increase of productivity in society due to the phenomenon of the division of labour and through this division of labour specialisation of skills was introduced. Adam Smith also speaks of the “natural “order of society, exchange, division of labour and the relations between the three ranks of society in the book. This essay will discuss the above mentioned concepts that Adam Smith theorised and give insight into these concepts.
The “natural” order of society pertains to the fact that the division of labour and the specialisation of skills …show more content…
That natural progress is the progress from changes in agriculture which sanction the formation of towns and investments in manufacture, and a homogeneous progress to international trade. The contrast here is that Smith is saying that humans are no more naturally social beings with the tendency to trade looking for material comfort. Instead, humans are desperate for “power and protection” and are beings of “rapine and violence”, they are vain and they are in a constant pursuit for luxury. Smith uses entrepreneurs to explain this – they are unwilling to take pains to pay attention to small savings and small gains, they love to domineer and are mortified at even the thought of having to encourage their inferiors (the …show more content…
The wealth of nations is derived from the division of labour and through this division of labour, efficiency is achieved and thus productivity grows and through this increase in productivity, they are able to exchange and trade with other nations, this lead to mass accumulation of wealth by these nations. As this productivity increases, trade and exchange increase as well as specialisation increases within the division of labour. All of this is possible through the three ranks of society keeping to their rank and producing whatever is specific to that rank. Landowners renting land, entrepreneurs using the land they rent to set up industries and the hiring of the necessary labourers to produce and be
The “natural” order of society pertains to the fact that the division of labour and the specialisation of skills …show more content…
That natural progress is the progress from changes in agriculture which sanction the formation of towns and investments in manufacture, and a homogeneous progress to international trade. The contrast here is that Smith is saying that humans are no more naturally social beings with the tendency to trade looking for material comfort. Instead, humans are desperate for “power and protection” and are beings of “rapine and violence”, they are vain and they are in a constant pursuit for luxury. Smith uses entrepreneurs to explain this – they are unwilling to take pains to pay attention to small savings and small gains, they love to domineer and are mortified at even the thought of having to encourage their inferiors (the …show more content…
The wealth of nations is derived from the division of labour and through this division of labour, efficiency is achieved and thus productivity grows and through this increase in productivity, they are able to exchange and trade with other nations, this lead to mass accumulation of wealth by these nations. As this productivity increases, trade and exchange increase as well as specialisation increases within the division of labour. All of this is possible through the three ranks of society keeping to their rank and producing whatever is specific to that rank. Landowners renting land, entrepreneurs using the land they rent to set up industries and the hiring of the necessary labourers to produce and be