34 lines
1.1 KiB
Markdown
34 lines
1.1 KiB
Markdown
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# Dexterity of the Workman
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## Definition
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The skill and speed a worker acquires through repeated performance of a single
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specialised operation. Smith identifies the increase in dexterity as the first
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of three causes by which the division of labour improves productive power.
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Specialisation reduces each worker's task to one simple operation, making it
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the sole employment of their life, and thereby dramatically increasing their
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proficiency.
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## Source Chapter
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Book I, Chapter 1: "Of the Division of Labour"
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## Context
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Presented as the first of three mechanisms explaining why the division of labour
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increases output. Smith illustrates it with the example of nail-making: an
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unskilled smith makes 200-300 nails per day, while a specialised nailer can
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produce over 2,300.
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## Economic Domain
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Production
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## Smith's Original Wording
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"First, the improvement of the dexterity of the workmen, necessarily increases
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the quantity of the work he can perform; and the division of labour, by reducing
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every man's business to some one simple operation, and by making this operation
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the sole employment of his life, necessarily increases very much the dexterity
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of the workman."
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