Adam Smith, from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)

2. The effects of the division of labor, in the general business of society, will be more easily understood, by considering in what manner it operates in some particular manufacturers. It is commonly supposed to be carried furthest in some very trifling ones; not perhaps that it really is carried further in them than in others more important: but in the trifling manufacturers which are destined to supply the small wants of but a small number of people, the whole number of workmen must necessarily be small; and those employed in every different branch of the work can often be collected into the same workhouse, and placed at once under the view of the spectator. In those great manufacturers, on the contrary, which are destined to supply the great wants of the great body of the people, every different branch of the work employs so great a number of workmen, that it is impossible to collect them all into the same workhouse. We can seldom see more, at one time, then those employed in one single branch. Though in such manufacturers, therefore, the work may really be divided into much greater number of parts, then in those of a more trifling nature, the division is not near so obvious, and has accordingly been much less observed.