58
Manual of Political Economy.
that the labour which is performed can be so apportioned as to suit the capacity of each individual workman.
The division of labour is limited by the demand for the commodities produced.It has often been remarked that the demand for any particular commodity places a practical limit upon the extent to which division of labour in its manufacture can be carried. There are in this country few commodities in such a position. But to take a hypothetical case; let it be supposed that a pin manufactory is established in a new colony, the population of which is small. If there is such a division of labour that ten men are employed in the manufactory, there would be made, as has been before stated, fifty thousand pins in the course of a day. The colony might only have a demand for half of this number; and hence, if we suppose, for the sake of simplicity, that the colony has no export trade, there will be more pins made than are required. The pin manufactory might be closed during a portion of the year, in order that a smaller number of pins might be made. But in order to avoid the loss which is always incurred when a trade is carried on at intervals, the pin manufacturer would probably find it more to his advantage to employ a smaller number of men. If only five were now employed, there would not be so great a division of labour, and the labour of the five workmen would not be so efficient, for the number of pins now made in the course of the year would fall far short of one-half of the number previously made, although only double the quantity of labour was then employed. In England there are few things which are manufactured at an increased cost in consequence of the limited demand existing for them. If the stereoscope, for example, were only used as formerly for scientific purposes, and employed, like many other optical instruments, by professors to illustrate the laws of optics, a stereoscope would be far more expensive than it is now. The few which would then be purchased in the course of a year would be made, speaking comparatively, without any division of labour; it would not be worth while specially to apply any machinery to the construction of stereoscopes. But the stereoscope has now become a drawing-room toy, and tens of thousands are made every year. The price of stereoscopes has consequently