The Role Of Division Of Labor During The Industrial Revolution

Division of labor started a long time ago, even before The Agricultural Revolution begin. In the first human groups which were homo neanderthalensis, division of labor was present since men went hunting while women and elders stayed with the group, cooking and looking after children. Although division of labor was present, it depended on age and gender rather than specialties which certainly made community life easier, but not enough. Division of labor according to specialties started in the 18th century, with The Agricultural Revolution and it has been an indispensable part of society and economy ever since. When the revolution began, food surplus occurred and this led to an increase in populations, resulting in the formation of guilds, which are people or a group of people specialized in one particular subject. For example, blacksmiths are specialized in forging, merchants on trading and so on. During the revolution, Adam Smith was the first economist who suggested division of labor as a theory, and stated that societies which use division of

Although nearly all countries began using division of labor, it was based on comparative advantage, which meant that different countries specialized on producing different materials that would cost the lowest for the producers and the country itself. For example, for Switzerland, it is chocolate and for France, it is wine. By comparative advantage, international division of labor began where each country specialized on producing their comparative advantage materials, then traded them with the others’. In other words, countries focused on producing one material for the world rather than producing all materials for their country. For example, Japan bought wine from France rather than producing it and traded it with cars which France doesn’t actively produce. International division of labor could also be called division of labor in the