ABSTRACT
To begin our survey of the development of the theory of production and/or the theory of the firm we briefly look at the history of thought on the division of labour. As has been made clear by work beginning in the 20th century the division of labour can act as a catalyst for a theory of the firm, but it took more than two thousand years for it to act as such. Until Alfred Marshall at the end of the 19th century many authors, including Adam Smith, wrote on the division of labour without applying it to the theory of micro-level production or the firm.
