The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, November 1883: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Promotion of True Culture.; Organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
History
The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, November 1883: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Promotion of True Culture.; Organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Institution -- Periodicals; Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle -- Periodicals
6. As has been intimated, it is only by application of principles
underlying political economy that we come to the conditions of the
highest production, or, in other words, find how to satisfy the largest
range of desires to the greatest extent at the smallest cost of labor.
One of the chief means of effecting this is by _the combination and
division of labor_. Recalling what was said concerning association and
individuality, we shall see what principles are involved here, and
how naturally they came into operation. As there was seen to be no
antagonism between the two latter conceptions when carefully analyzed,
so there is none, but rather the opposite, between combination
and division of labor. It is true that there are instances where
combination may take place without division, as when men unite to
effect purposes which one could not accomplish except in much more than
the proportionate time; as also in some cases to affect purposes which
the individual could not effect in any length of time, such as the
moving and placing of heavy timbers and stones, the management of ships
and railway trains, etc. But for the most part men divide their labor
in the process in order that they may combine the result. This is done
in two ways:
(1) Men divide up the work of supplying human wants into different
trades and occupations, according to their several tastes and
aptitudes. Each man needs nearly the same that every other needs.
But while each provides for only one kind of want, he provides more
than enough to satisfy his own desire in that particular respect,
and contributes the overplus to meet that same want in others. As
all others do the same, each is contributing to meet the desires
of one and all to each. The shoemaker, the tailor, the carpenter,
the cabinet-maker, the blacksmith, the weaver, the paper-maker, the
tin-man, the miner, the smelter, the painter, the glazier, etc., are
all contributing to supply the farmer’s needs, and the farmer is
contributing to all their needs. The wants of all are many times more
fully met in this way than if each one should undertake to supply all
his own wants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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