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First, the improvement of the dexterity of the workmen,

necessarily increases the quantity of the work he can perform;

and the division of labour, by reducing every man's business to

some one simple operation, and by making this operation the sole

employment of his life, necessarily increases very much the

dexterity of the workman. A common smith, who, though accustomed

to handle the hammer, has never been used to make nails, if, upon

some particular occasion, he is obliged to attempt it, will

scarce, I am assured, be able to make above two or three hundred

nails in a day, and those, too, very bad ones. A smith who has

been accustomed to make nails, but whose sole or principal

business has not been that of a nailer, can seldom, with his

utmost diligence, make more than eight hundred or a thousand

nails in a day.