Adam Smith's Division Of Labor

The Industrial Revolution marked one of the biggest transitions in shaping the modern world during the 18th and 19th century; it was a period of transition from a feudal society to a modern industrial society. The Industrial Revolution caused dramatic changes in the social and economic structure of the factory system because inventions and technological innovations were being created which revolutionized the assembly line and increased productivity in factories. This Revolution of the factory system allowed capitalism to flourish, giving society increased productivity and wealth. Although, the Industrial Revolution was a time of wealth, labour laws did not exist and this allowed for exploitation of workers in factories. Adam Smith and Karl
The division of labour is the specialization of certain tasks performed by labourers. According to Smith if a labourer specializes on a certain task, productivity will increased which benefits the factory system. Smith states three reasons as to why the division of labour is important to the production process: it increases dexterity, saves time, and it inspires new technology and innovation. Smith noticed that when people are working repeated hours of the same task, they master that activity which increases their dexterity and speeds up production. Smith also uses the example of a pin-maker to describe how specialization works and saves a loss in time; he states that if you have multiple people doing specific jobs in making certain parts of the pin, instead of one person making the entire pin by themselves, there will be greater productivity. Lastly, Smith states that when men are working long hours doing repetitive work they find ways to make that task easier by solving problems by being innovative and creating technology. Adam Smith describes in the Wealth of Nations that the division of labour in the trades is what made the Industrial Revolution a success because it increased production and supply and this led to a richer and wealthier society. Karl Marx would rebuttal this last point
Marx writes about the troubles occurring from the introduction of machines in factories and observes that machines are able to produce specific functions of a worker and that they are also faster and more efficient than the worker. Marx also argues that science costs the capitalist nothing and the capitalist will stop at nothing to exploit it, so therefore because machines can produce more and it is cheap for the capitalist, the capitalists used more machines throughout Great Britain . The main argument Karl Marx makes is that because you have to pay workers for their labour and you don’t have to pay machines for their work capitalists are choosing to use machines and replace workers to cut costs, and as Karl Marx observes this causes massive unemployment and poverty throughout Great Britain. In Section 5 of Karl Marx’s book Capital he observes the mechanical improvement of the cotton industry due to the American Civil War. The statistics taken from the cotton industry shows in England and Wales that when there was an increase in the amount of spindles from 1861 with 28,352,125 spindles to 1868 with 30,478,228 spindles there is a