Editing Division of labour (section)

== Pre-modern theories ==

=== Plato ===
In [[Plato]]'s ''[[Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'', the [[Origins of the State|origin of the state]] lies in the natural [[Social inequality|inequality]] of humanity, which is embodied in the division of labour:

{{blockquote|Well then, how will our state supply these needs? It will need a farmer, a builder, and a weaver, and also, I think, a shoemaker and one or two others to provide for our bodily needs. So that the minimum state would consist of four or five men....|title=''[[Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'' ([[Penguin Classics]] ed.)|source=p. 103}}

Silvermintz (2010) noted that "Historians of economic thought credit Plato, primarily on account of arguments advanced in his Republic, as an early proponent of the division of labour."<ref name=":0" /> Notwithstanding this, Silvermintz argues that "While Plato recognises both the economic and political benefits of the division of labour, he ultimately critiques this form of economic arrangement insofar as it hinders the individual from ordering his own soul by cultivating acquisitive motives over prudence and reason."<ref name=":0">{{cite journal|last=Silvermintz|first=Daniel|title=Plato's Supposed Defense of the Division of Labor: A Reexamination of the Role of Job Specialisation in the Republic|journal=History of Political Economy|year=2010|volume=42|issue=4|pages=747–72|doi=10.1215/00182702-2010-036}}</ref>

=== Xenophon ===
[[Xenophon]], in the 4th century BC, makes a passing reference to division of labour in his ''[[Cyropaedia]]'' (a.k.a. ''Education of Cyrus'').

{{blockquote|Just as the various trades are most highly developed in large cities, in the same way food at the palace is prepared in a far superior manner. In small towns the same man makes couches, doors, ploughs and tables, and often he even builds houses, and still he is thankful if only he can find enough work to support himself. And it is impossible for a man of many trades to do all of them well. In large cities, however, because many make demands on each trade, one alone is enough to support a man, and often less than one: for instance one man makes shoes for men, another for women, there are places even where one man earns a living just by mending shoes, another by cutting them out, another just by sewing the uppers together, while there is another who performs none of these operations but assembles the parts. Of necessity, he who pursues a very specialised task will do it best.<ref>Book VIII, ch, ii, [https://archive.org/details/cyropaediaorins00xenogoog/page/n268 <!-- pg=244 quote=cyropaedia xenophon I"in small towns". --> 4[&#93;-6], cited in ''[[The Ancient Economy (book)|The Ancient Economy]]'' by M. I. Finley. Penguin books 1992, p. 135.</ref>|sign=|source=}}

=== Augustine of Hippo ===
A simile used by [[Augustine of Hippo]] shows that the division of labour was practised and understood in late Imperial Rome. In a brief passage of his ''[[The City of God]]'', Augustine seems to be aware of the role of different social layers in the production of goods, like household ([[Pater familias#Roman familia|''familiae'']]), corporations (''collegia'') and the state.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burns |first=Anthony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7sb2DwAAQBAJ&dq=augustine+Hippo+%22division+of+labour%22&pg=PA127 |title=Social Institutions and the Politics of Recognition: From the Ancient Greeks to the Reformation |date=2020-07-16 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-78348-880-3 |pages=127 |language=en}}</ref>

{{blockquote|…like workmen in the street of the silversmiths, where one vessel, in order that it may go out perfect, passes through the hands of many, when it might have been finished by one perfect workman.  But the only reason why the combined skill of many workmen was thought necessary, was, that it is better that each part of an art should be learned by a special workman, which can be done speedily and easily, than that they should all be compelled to be perfect in one art throughout all its parts, which they could only attain slowly and with difficulty.|title=''The City of God'' (tr. [[Marcus Dods (theologian born 1834)|Marcus Dods]])|source=[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nicene_and_Post-Nicene_Fathers:_Series_I/Volume_II/City_of_God/Book_VII/Chapter_4 VII.4]}}

===Medieval Muslim scholars===

The division of labour was discussed by multiple medieval Persian scholars. They considered the division of labour between members of a household, between members of society and between nations. For [[Nasir al-Din al-Tusi]] and [[al-Ghazali]] the division of labour was necessary and useful. The similarity of the examples provided by these scholars with those provided by Adam Smith (such as al-Ghazali's needle factory and Tusi's claim that exchange, and by extension the division of labour, are the consequences of the human reasoning capability and that no animals have been observed to exchange one bone for another) led some scholars to conjecture that Smith was influenced by the medieval Persian scholarship.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Seeking the Roots of Adam Smith's Division of Labor in Medieval Persia |journal=History of Political Economy |date=1998 |volume=30 |issue=4 |page=667-673 |doi=10.1215/00182702-30-4-653 |last1=Hosseini |first1=Hamid }}</ref>