been greatly reduced; so many are now manufactured, that workmen may be employed entirely in constructing them; and each part in a stereoscope may, like the various parts of a pin, be separately manufactured. All the advantages of division of labour can in this manner be secured; the dexterity of the workman is increased; machines, too, will be probably invented specially to facilitate some of the operations in the construction of the stereoscope, and these various operations can now be apportioned amongst workmen according to their skill and capacity. The practical result of this is strikingly exemplified in the fact that a stereoscope which now can be purchased for three shillings could not, a few years since, be obtained for less than a pound.
Combination of labour is as necessary as division of labour.The efficiency of labour as an agent of production depends as much upon the combination or cooperation of labour as upon its division. Labour may be combined in two different ways, and these have been described by Mr. Wakefield as simple and complex cooperation. When several workmen combine their labour in the same way to do the same thing, it is called by Mr. Wakefield simple cooperation; and its importance can be readily illustrated. Work has often to be done which requires the strength of a great number of men; a weight may have to be lifted which could not be lifted by any one man. Without such a cooperation of labour none of the works which mark the civilisation of a country could have been accomplished; for unless labourers united their strength and skill, bridges could not be built, railways could not be made, mines could not be dug, and buildings could not be erected. The assistance which labourers engaged in one employment lend to those in another was described by Mr. Wakefield as the complex cooperation of labour. He was the first who adequately explained the most important considerations which arise from such a combination of labour. Political economists, guided by the example of Adam Smith, had previously almost entirely confined their attention to a very subsidiary branch of the subject, namely, the division of labour. We have already indirectly remarked upon the great extent to which different employments combine to assist each other. Case of theThe manufacture of cotton cloth was mentioned as an