1.2 Principle of the Division of Labor

The division of labor was an evolution of the human propensity to barter and exchange one thing for another. Smith declines to consider the origin of this propensity, but notes that it can be witnessed in virtually every human society.

There's some consideration of cooperative efforts and sharing in the animal kingdom, but it is more in the nature of dominion - an animal will steal or threaten or beg to obtain something from another, and it may occur that animals take from one another at different times or exist symbiotically. Pack hunters may work in concert, and certain species of insect live in colonies. But none of the behaviors of the animal kingdom are a clear equivalent of the specialization of labor and deliberate exchange of goods that occurs among people.

(EN: he goes into some detail here, mildly amusing but of little use except to those who would take exception and identify instances in which animal behavior is suggested as a model for human interaction - but the conclusions of such reckonings are as patently absurd as their premises.)

Among men, the bargaining process is an act intended to gain something that one party wants by giving to them something that is wanted. It is an exchange of value for value - only the likes of beggars and thieves expect to gain advantage of their fellow men without offering something of equal value in return.

There is no instance of people, living in close proximity, in a situation in which each is entirely independent and provides for his own needs. Even in primitive tribes, people specialize in a given activity - some hunting, some fishing, some gathering, some making clothing, etc. - and trade takes place among tribes that have specialized in specific tasks.

Smith also attributes specialization to a difference in "the natural talents in different men," though he suggests they are not so much innate as they are the result of habit and experience. For the first six or eight years of life, children are very much alike - but in the next few years, differences in their talents emerge. By adulthood, people who have lived in the same proximity become very different individuals - with very different talents. They gravitate toward those activities at which they are most capable, and exchange the product of their endeavors with others who have abilities they lack: the strength of the smith is exchanged for the nimbleness of the weaver in the trade of their respective products.