The Division Of Labor In Economics: A History (routledge Studies In The History Of Economics)

"This book provides, for the first time, a systematic and comprehensive narrative of the history of one central idea in economics, namely the division of labour, over the past two and a half millennia, with special focus on that having occurred in the most recent two and a half centuries. Quite contrary to the widely held belief, the idea has a fascinating biography, much richer than that exemplified by the pin-making story that was popularized by Adam Smith's classical work published in 1776"--Publisher's website Cover 1 The Division of Labor in Economics: A history 12 Copyright 13 Contents 14 Preface 17 1. Introduction 20 Part I: Pre­Smith analyses 28 2. Early analyses 30 2.1 The Greek origins 30 2.2 The early Chinese literature on specialization and the market 36 2.3 The treatment of the division of labor in medieval Islamic Scholastics 46 2.4 Private property and commerce in the medieval Latin Scholastics 54 3. Mercantilists and the emergence of the political economy of the division of labor 58 3.1 Specialization and the market in William Petty’s writings and the mercantilist pamphlets on trade 59 3.2 Ernst Ludwig Carl and the emergence of systems 62 3.3 Dr Bernard Mandeville 68 3.4 The French encyclopédists 73 Part II: The Smithian economics of the division of labor 76 4. The Smithian economics of the division of labor and the market process: the principle 78 4.1 Natural liberty, commercial society and the division of labor: Adam Smith’s integrative treatment 78 4.2 The division of labor, increasing returns and the market process: the evolution of ideas from Smith (1776) to Stigler (1951) 110 Appendix. The Smith–Turgot myth 119 Part III: Marx on the division of labor in capitalist manufacturing and the Hayekian problem of knowledge 122 5. Machinery and the factory system: Charles Babbage and Karl Marx on the division of labor in manufacturing 124 5.1 Charles Babbage and Andrew Ure on manufacturing and the factory system 125 5.2 Karl Marx on the division of labor in manufacture 131 5.3 Karl Marx on the evolution of division of labor in the capitalist economy 133 Appendix. The sociology of the negative aspects of the division of labor 140 6. Catallaxy and the division of knowledge: Hayek’s insights 145 6.1 The idea of spontaneous social order 145 6.2 Hayek: from “the problem of knowledge” to “the economic problem of society” 156 6.3 Hayek’s catallaxy: from the division of labor to the division of knowledge 162 Part IV: Economic development framed in the economics of the division of labor 168 7. Urbanization and industrialization 170 7.1 The town-village division of labor and urbanization 170 7.2 The industrial revolution 177 7.3 Urbanization and industrialization: the causality problem 192 8. Human capital, the extent of the market and economic growth 196 8.1 Human capital, specialization and risk sharing 196 8.2 The Smithian economics of growth and the market: modern formulations and a revival 203 9. Economic organization and the division of labor 210 9.1 Transaction costs, the firm and institutions 210 9.2 Coordination within the firm: balanced incentives, matching and utilization of knowledge 217 9.3 Transaction costs and the firm: some retrospective remarks 219 Epilogue 222 Notes 225 References 251 Name index 268 Subject index 273 This book examines the study of the division of labour over the past two and a half millennia, from the writings of Plato, Smith and Marx, to Hayek and Stigler, assessing recent advancements and suggesting new directions.