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Flat White

Remembering Adam Smith before it’s too late

3 December 2021

4:00 AM

3 December 2021

4:00 AM

Adam Smith in his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, marvelled at the way the factory system made vast improvements in productivity due to its division of labour.

In his pin-making factory example, he estimated that this allowed 4,000 pins a day per worker to be manufactured, while one man working alone would probably only make one such pin.

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