77


mess  (which  the  division  of  labour  has  rendered  a  distinct
trade,)  nor  acquainted  with  the  use  of  the  machinery  employ-
ed 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  011  is  a  peculiar  business,  to  whiten  the  pins  is  an-
other j  it  is  even  a  trade  by  itself  to  put  them  into  the  paper  ;
and  the  important  business  of  making  a  pin  is,  in  this  manner,
divided  into  about  eighteen  distinct  operations,  which,  in  some
manufactories,  are  all  performed  by  distinct  hands,  though  in
others  the  same  man  will  sometimes  perform  two  or  three  of
them.  I  have  seen  a  small  manufactory  of  this  kind  where
ten  men  only  were  employed,  and  where  some  of  them  conse-
quently performed  two  or  three  distinct  operations.  But
though  they  were  very  poor,  and  therefore  but  indifferently
accommodated  with  the  necessary  machinery,  they  could,  when
they  exerted  themselves,  make  among  them  about  twelve
pounds  of  pins  in  a  day.  There  are  in  a  pound  upwards  of
four  thousand  pins  of  a  middling  size.  Those  ten  persons,
therefore,  could  make  among  them  upwards  of  forty-eight
thousand  pins  in  a  day.  Each  person,  therefore,  making  a
tenth  part  of  forty-eight  thousand  pins,  might  be  considered
as  making  four  thousand  eight  hundred  pins  in  a  day.  But
if  they  had  all  wrought  separately  and  independently,  and
without  any  of  them  having  been  educated  to  this  peculiar
business,  they  certainly  could  not  each  of  them  have  made
twenty,  perhaps  not  one  pin  in  a  day ;  that  is,  certainly  not
the  two  hundred  and  fortieth,  perhaps  not  the  four  thousand
eight  hundredth  part  of  what  they  are  at  present  capable  of


78  EFFECTS  OF  THE  BOOK  I.
