ABSTRACT

Adam Smith had employed his famous example of how the division of labour dramatically speeds the production of pins, but Gaspard de Prony saw that the same principle could be applied to mathematical calculations. In Smith's terms, Charles Babbage had a wonderful plan for the productive division of labour, but his idea was not inspired by markets but out of an abstract conviction on his part that such a device would be useful. Babbage said that Smith had omitted one very important advantage to the division of labour; that in addition to the three advantages Smith had cited, the division of labour allowed a critical fourth advantage. With the clever division of labour, the manufacturer need only pay for the amount of skill that was required for the task, and no more. One of Babbage's innovations was not resurrected in the twentieth century.