经济学家张五常曾有言：《原富》（国富论国内最早的中文译名）是一本包罗万有的书：以经济分析为主，涉及政治、制度、教育、宗教、历史、哲学等，皆有见地。作者对历史与世事知道得非常多，而观察力之强是我平生仅见。作者以进化论的思维来阐释自利行为对社会的贡献与制度的转变，影响了达尔文进化论的开创以及整个欧洲的思想发展。
Economist Steven Cheung: Yuan Fu (The Wealth of Nations) is a comprehensive book that focuses on economic analysis, but also covers politics, institutions, education, religion, history, philosophy, and more. It is insightful. The author knows a lot about history and world affairs, and his observation ability is the strongest I have ever seen in my life. The author uses evolutionary thinking to explain the contribution of self-interest behavior to society and the transformation of institutions, which has influenced the development of Darwinian evolution and the development of ideas throughout Europe.
本版《国富论》英文原版文字源自英国梅休因有限公司1930年版《国民财富的性质和原因的研究》《An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations》，简称《国富论》（The Wealth of Nations）。
Book 1
OF THE CAUSES OF IMPROVEMENT IN THE PRODUCTIVE POWERS OFLABOUR, AND OF THE ORDER ACCORDING TO WHICH ITS PRODUCE ISNATURALLY DISTRIBUTED AMONG THE DIFFERENT RANKS OF THE PEOPLE
第一篇章
劳动生产力跃进的动因和劳动成果在不同社会分工间分配的一般规律
本篇章要点：第一部分和第二部分是全书的理论基础部分，介绍了实现国家富裕的两大条件：劳动分工和资本积累。第一部分介绍了劳动分工发展一国财富的内在机制，提出了劳动价值论，通过劳动创造价值的收入（工资、利润、地租）这些概念一一呈现。那么是谁在指挥如此复杂的劳动生产和财富分配呢？斯密提出了本书的重要原理——“看不见的手”。
CHAPTER I
Of the Division of Labour
第一部分
劳动分工论
本部分精彩语录
This great increase of the quantity of work which, in consequence of the division of labour, the same number of people are capable of performing, is owing to three different circumstances;
分工带来生产力飞跃性增长，同样数量的人能够完成更多的工作量，原因在于三个不同的因素；
first, to the increase of dexterity in every particular workman; secondly, to the saving of the time which is commonly lost in passing from one species of work to another; and lastly, to the invention of a great number of machines which facilitate and abridge labour, and enable one man to do the work of many.
首先，劳动分工促使每个工人熟练程度和专业技能的提高；其次，分工流程节省了在不同工种之间来回折腾浪费的时间；最后，持续性的分工促进发明和革新了许多能够简化和减少劳动的机器，使一个人能够完成多人的工作。
The main points of this chapter:
The first and second parts are the theoretical foundations of the book, introducing the two major conditions for achieving national prosperity: labor division and capital accumulation. The first part introduces the internal mechanism of the division of labor and the development of a country's wealth, and proposes the theory of labor value, which presents the concepts of income (wages, profits, and land rents) generated through labor creation. So who is directing such a complex labor production and wealth distribution? Smith proposed the important principle of this book-the"invisible hand."
本部分导读：
如果要用一句话概括整部《国富论》的核心思想，那就是“分工催生效能，合作造就繁荣”，可以看出劳动分工论在斯密经济思想大厦中的基石地位，劳动分工论对生产方式的深刻影响是革命性的，后来的福特流水线生产模式，丰田生产方式，读客华楠正在践行的创意流水线生产方式，追根朔源，它们和劳动分工论一脉相承。
The following is the main body:
以下是正文部分：
THE greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of theskill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is anywhere directed, or applied, seem to havebeen the effects of the division of labour.
劳动生产力上巨大的跃进，不管是运营管理还是具体操作上看，劳动者所表现出来的更显著的技巧、熟练和认知判断，似乎都是由劳动分工的直接结果。
The effects of the division of labour, in the general business of society, will be more easily understood by considering in what manner it operates in some particular manufactures.
劳动分工如何在一般的商业社会中发挥影响？通过考察典型的制造业工厂的运营方式，将更容易理解这一点。
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 of more importance：but in those trifling manufactures 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.
一般认为那些不起眼的小型制造厂分工更细分。可事实并非如此，小型制造业的分工，并不比大型制造厂更为细分，由于小型制造业只能供给少部分人的少量需求，能雇用的工人数量通常不多，各工种的工人往往集中在同一厂房内，能够一目了然因此外界更为熟悉。
In those great manufactures, 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.
相反，那些大型制造厂，通常要供应大批量人群的大量消费需求，自然各细分工种都需要大量工人，通常这么多工人很难集中于一个厂房内，旁人要同时看见多个工种的工人是难得一见的。
We can seldom see more, at one time, than those employed in one single branch. Though in such manufactures, therefore, the work may really be divided into a much greaternumber of parts than in those of a more trifling nature, the division is not near so obvious,and has accordingly been much less observed.
因此，大型制造厂虽说比小型制造厂有更多的细分工种和工序，只是这些细分没有那么显而易见，通常很少人能留意到。
To take an example, therefore, from a very trifling manufacture; but one in which the division of labour has been very often taken notice of, the trade of the pin-maker;
举个例子，尽管，在制造业中看似不起眼，但是在关于劳动分工这一话题上，却往往引人关注，那就是别针制造业。
aworkman not educated to this business（which the division of labour has rendered a distinct trade）, nor acquainted with the use of the machinery employed in it（to the invention of which the same division of labour has probably given occasion）, could scarce, perhaps, with his utmost industry, make one pin in a day, and certainly could not make twenty.
如果一个工人没有受过相应的技能训练（这种分工使得它成为一门独特的职业），也不深入其中使用的机器（可能是由于同样的分工带来了机器的发明革新），那么即使他极尽全力，可能一天也难以制作出一枚别针，制作二十枚当然是不可能的。
But in the way in which this business is now carried on, not only the whole work is a peculiar trade, but it is divided into a number of branches, of which the greater part are likewise peculiar trades.
然而，在这一现行的生产方式下，不仅整个制针业是一个细分的工艺，其下还分成了许多单独的工序，其中大部分也都有特殊的细分工艺。
One man draws out the wire, another straights it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving, the head;
其中一人拉出铁丝，另一人将其弄直，第三个人将其切割分段，第四个人将其一头尖化，第五个人将其顶部磨光，以备接上针头。
to make the head requires two or three distinct operations; to put it on is a peculiar business, to whiten the pins is another; it is even a trade by itself to put them into the paper;
制作别针的头部需要两到三个不同的操作；将头部装上是一项单独的任务，把别针变白是另一项，甚至将它们装入纸张中也是一个单独的环节。
and the important business of making a pin is, in this manner, divided into about eighteen distinct operations, which, in some manufactories, are all performed by distinct hands, though in others the same man will sometimes perform two or three of them.
在这一流程中，制针的必要环节分解成十八道工序。详细说来，在部分工厂中，每道工序由专人分别完成；另外有时也存在一个人完成其中两到三个工序的情况。
I have seen a small manufactory of this kind where ten men only were employed, and where some of the mconsequently performed two or three distinct operations.
我调研过一个小厂，只有10个工人的规模，相应的，某些工人就得完成两三道工序。
But though they were very poor,and therefore but indifferently accommodated with the necessary machinery, they could,when they exerted themselves, make among them about twelve pounds of pins in a day.
这小厂穷是穷了点，必要的机器设备简陋不相适应，不过这些人，如果使劲干，部分人每日能够完成十二磅的别针。
There are in a pound upwards of four thousand pins of a middling size. Those ten persons,therefore, could make among them upwards of forty-eight thousand pins in a day.
1磅的中号别针至多有4000枚。如此10个工人规模的小厂，每日上限能完成48000枚别针。
Each person, therefore, making a tenth part of forty-eight thousand pins, might be consideredas making four thousand eight hundred pins in a day.
人均完成48000枚大头别针的1/10，总计日完成量就是4800枚大头别针。
But if they had all wrought separately and independently, and without any of them having been educated to this peculiar business, they certainly could not each of them have made twenty, perhaps not one pin in a day;
然而，一旦这些人分开单独包揽整个流程，而不是按工序和训练各司其职，显然单个人一天别想完成二十枚别针，可能1枚也做出来。
that is, certainly, not the two hundred and fortieth, perhaps not the four thousand eight hundredth part of what they are at present capable of performing, in consequence of a proper division and combination of their different operations.
如此种种，很显然，240分之1，连4800分之1，他们也完不成，全在于这种适宜的分工协作模式，它所显示出来的魔力，两者相比简直是云泥之别。
In every other art and manufacture, the effects of the division of labour are similar to what they are in this very trifling one;
放眼这些工艺和制造业当中，劳动分工产生的魔力，和上述那家不起眼的大头别针制造厂类似。
though, in many of them, the labour can neither be so much subdivided, nor reduced to so great a simplicity of operation.
尽管，另外多数厂家的分工没这么多细分环节，也没有这样泾渭分明的生产流程。
The division of labour,however, so far as it can be introduced, occasions, in every art, a proportionable increase of the productive powers of labour.
关于劳动分工的，至少，逐步扩散直到目前，从实际情形看，无论在任何工艺制造领域，它都带来了劳动生产力的极大飞跃。
The separation of different trades and employments from one another seems to have taken place in consequence of this advantage.
不同工种和职业之间的分化趋势似乎也是因为这种优势所赐。
This separation, too, is generally called furthest in those countries which enjoy the highest degree of industry and improvement;
这种分化，更进一步说，在那些拥有工业发展和社会进步的国家中，它的工种和职业的分化也更为大张旗鼓走得更远。
what is the work of one man in a rude state of society being generally that of several in an improved one.
在往常未开发社会由一个人单独承担的工作，在如今进步社会常由多人分工协作。
In every improved society, the farmer is generally nothing but a farmer; the manufacturer, nothing but a manufacturer.
在现如今的进步的社会中，农民通常只是农民，制造商也只是制造商。
The labour, too, which is necessary to produce any one complete manufacture is almost always divided among a great number of hands.
具体生产也是如此，制造任何一种成品所需的操作，几乎总是要分解工种协作完成。
How many different trades are employed in each branch of the linen and woollen manufactures from the growers of the flax and the wool, to the bleachers and smoothers of the linen, or to the dyers and dressers of the cloth!
参与的协作的细分行当众多，在亚麻和羊毛制造的每一个环节中，有不同的工种参与，从种植亚麻和羊毛的农民，到处理亚麻的漂白工和熨平工，或者是给布料染色和最终成衣的工人！
The nature of agriculture, indeed, does not admit of so many subdivisions of labour,nor of so complete a separation of one business from another, as manufactures.
的确，农业的情况并不像制造业那样容许进行如此多的劳动分工，也不允许一个业务与另一个业务进行如此明确的分离。
It is impossible to separate so entirely the business of the grazier from that of the corn-farmeras the trade of the carpenter is commonly separated from that of the smith.
畜牧业的工作与种植农民的劳动作业是不可能完全分解的，它不能和木匠铁匠相提并论。
The spinner is almost always a distinct person from the weaver; but the ploughman, the harrower, the sower of the seed, and the reaper of the corn, are often the same.
纺织工和织布工几乎总是不同的人分别操作；但是耕地的人，犁地的人，播种的人和收割玉米的人往往是全流程同一人。
The occasions for those different sorts of labour returning with the different seasons of the year, it is impossible that one man should be constantly employed in any one of them.
由于这些不同类型的劳动需求会随着一年四季的变化而变化，所以不可能一个人能够一直从事其中的单一农活儿
This impossibility of making so complete and entire a separation of all the different branches of labour employed in agriculture is perhaps the reason why the improvement of the productivepowers of labour in this art does not always keep pace with their improvement inmanufactures.
不可能将农业中所有不同部分的劳动完全分解操作，这也许是为什么农业劳动生产力的进步不能和制造业的飞跃发展相当的原因。
The most opulent nations, indeed, generally excel all their neighbours inagriculture as well as in manufactures; but they are commonly more distinguished by their superiority in the latter than in the former.
确实，最富裕的国家通常在农业和制造业方面都优于周边国家，但它们在制造业上的优势比在农业上更为明显。。
Their lands are in general better cultivated, and having more labour and expense bestowed upon them, produce more in proportion to the extent and natural fertility of the ground.
富裕国家的土地普遍得到更好的耕种，投入更多的劳动和开支，使得产出与土地的面积和自然肥力成比例的收获更多。
But this superiority of produce is seldommuch more than in proportion to the superiority of labour and expense.
但是，比较这种产出的优势，往往抵消了劳动和开销的优势，并没有成比例增长。
In agriculture, the labour of the rich country is not always much more productive than that of the poor; or, atleast, it is never so much more productive as it commonly is in manufactures.
在农业中，富裕国家并不总是比贫穷国家的劳动力更具生产力；至少不如制造业那样显而易见的明显优势。。
The corn of the rich country, therefore, will not always, in the same degree of goodness, come cheaperto market than that of the poor，
比如，同等品质的谷麦，富裕国家比贫穷国家更便宜，这事并不常见。
The corn of Poland, in the same degree of goodness, is as cheap as that of France, notwithstanding the superior opulence and improvement of thelatter country.
尽管法国更富裕、更发达，但波兰的谷物在相同质量水平下和法国的谷麦一样便宜。
The corn of France is, in the corn provinces, fully as good, and in most years nearly about the same price with the corn of England, though, in opulence and improvement,France is perhaps inferior to England.
法国的谷麦在谷麦产区的质量完全不逊色，并且在大多数年份与英格兰的谷物价格几乎相同，尽管在财富和进步方面，法国也许不如英格兰。
The corn-lands of England, however,are better cultivated than those of France, and the corn-lands of France are said to bemuch better cultivated than those of Poland.
英格兰的谷麦比法国耕种得更佳，而法国的谷麦种植据说比波兰好不少。
But though the poor country,notwithstanding the inferiority of its cultivation, can, in some measure, rival the rich in the cheapness and goodness of its corn, it can pretend to no such competition in its manufactures;
尽管贫穷的国家在耕种水平上稍显劣势，但在谷麦的廉价和品质方面，在某种程度上能与富裕国家相媲美，只是在制造业方面无法与富国竞争，
at least if those manufactures suit the soil, climate, and situation of the rich country.
至少，在这些制造业富裕国家如果能够根据自己的资源禀赋水土气候情况去安排生产的情况下。
The silks of France are better and cheaper than those of England, because the silkmanufacture, at least under the present high duties upon the importation of raw silk, does not so well suit the climate of England as that of France.
比如，法国的丝绸比英国的更好更便宜，因为至少在目前对生丝进口征收的高关税下，丝绸制造业在英国的气候条件下不如在法国适应。
But the hardware and the coarse woollens of England are beyond all comparison superior to those of France, and muchcheaper too in the same degree of goodness.
但是英国的五金和粗毛织物远远优于法国的产品，而且在相同质量水平下也便宜得多。
In Poland there are said to be scarce any manufactures of any kind, a few of those coarser household manufactures excepted,without which no country can well subsist.
在波兰，据说几乎没有多少制造业，只有维持基本生存所必须的少量粗糙手工作坊。
This great increase of the quantity of work which, in consequence of the division of labour, the same number of people are capable of performing, is owing to three different circumstances; 分工带来生产力飞跃性增长，同样数量的人能够完成更多的工作量，原因在于三个不同的因素；first, to the increase of dexterity in every particular workman; secondly, to the saving of the time which is commonly lost in passing from one species of work to another; and lastly, to the invention of a great number of machines which facilitate and abridge labour, and enable one man to do the work of many.
首先，劳动分工促使每个工人熟练程度和专业技能的提高；其次，分工流程节省了在不同工种之间来回折腾浪费的时间；最后，持续性的分工促进发明出许多能够简化和减少劳动的机器，使一个人能够完成多人的工作。
First, the improvement of the dexterity of the workman necessarily increases the quantity of the work he can perform;
首先，工人技巧的提高必然增加了他能完成的工作数量。
and the division of labour, by reducing every man's business to some one simple operation, and by making this operation the sole employment of his life, necessarily increased very much dexterity of the workman.
而分工的结果，就是使每个工人都从事一种简单重复的操作，而且是终生从事这种行当，当然就会大大提高工人的技巧。
A common smith, who,though accustomed to handle the hammer, has never been used to make nails, if upon some particular occasion he is obliged to attempt it, will scarce, I am assured, be able to make above two or three hundred nails in a day, and those too very bad ones.
一个常见的铁匠，虽然习惯于使用锤子，但从未尝试过制作铁钉，如果在某种特殊情况下他被迫尝试，我敢肯定他一天只能做出两三百个铁钉，而且质量很差。
A smith who has been accustomed to make nails, but whose sole or principal business has not been that of a nailer, can seldom with his utmost diligence make more than eight hundred or a thousand nails in a day.
一个铁匠，虽然习惯于制造钉子，但他的唯一或主要职业并不是制造钉子的，那么，即使他全力以赴，也很少能一天制造八百或一千个枚钉子。
I have seen several boys under twenty years of age who had never exercised any other trade but that of making nails, and who, when they exerted themselves, could make, each of them, upwards of two thousand three hundred nails in aday.
我见过几个不到二十岁的年轻人，除了制造钉子以外没有干过别的行业，他们全力以赴时，一天能制造两千三百枚钉子。
The making of a nail, however, is by no means one of the simplest operations.
制作铁钉，实际上，这并不是一项简单的操作。
The same person blows the bellows, stirs or mends the fire as there is occasion, heats theiron, and forges every part of the nail:in forging the head too he is obliged to change his tools.
一个给锅炉火鼓风的鼓风岗位，根据需要调整火候大小，加热铁材并锻造每个部分的铁钉，锻造铁钉头时，他还需要更换工具。
The different operations into which the making of a pin, or of a metal button, is subdivided, are all of them much more simple, and the dexterity of the person, of whose life it has been the sole business to perform them, is usually much greater.
制作一根钉子或一个金属纽扣的不同操作，如果再进一步细分，它们都要简单得多，而且那些专门从事终身以此为业的人的技巧通常要更高。
The rapidity with which some of the operations of those manufacturers are performed, exceeds what the human hand could, by those who had never seen them, be supposed capable of acquiring.
这些制造商的这一波波操作，部分环节的制造效率堪称神速，如果不置身现场，简直让人难以置信。
Secondly, the advantage which is gained by saving the time commonly lost in passing from one sort of work to another is much greater than we should at first view be apt to imagine it.
其次，通过省去从一种工种转换到另一种工种，来回切换通常花费的时间而得到的好处，远远超过了最初的想象。
It is impossible to pass very quickly from one kind of work to another that is carried on in a different place and with quite different tools.
从一种工作空间转到另一种在工作场所，从使用的工具都不同的一种工种换到另一种工种，是不可能很快的。
A country weaver, who cultivates a small farm, must lose a good deal of time in passing from his loom to the field, and from the field to his loom.
一个经营小农场的织布工，他从织布机到田间，又从田间到织布机，必然浪费许多时间。
When the two trades can be carried on in the same workhouse, the loss of time is no doubt much less.
当这两种工业在同一场所内进行时，时间的损失无疑要少得多。
It is even in this case, however, very considerable.
然而，即使是在这种情况下，损失也是相当大的。
A man commonly saunters a little in turning his hand from one sort of employment to another.
一个人在从一种工种转换到另一种工种时，通常都会稍微闲逛一会儿。
When he first begins the new work he is seldom very keen and hearty; his mind, as they say, does not go to it, and for some time he rather trifles thanapplies to good purpose.
当他第一次开始新的工作时，他很少非常热心和热情；正如他们所说的那样，很难立即把心思放在工作上，有时会悠哉游哉的磨洋工。
The habit of sauntering and of indolent careless application,which is naturally, or rather necessarily acquired by every country workman who is obliged to change his work and his tools every half hour, and to apply his hand in twenty different ways almost every day of his life, renders him almost always slothful and lazy, and incapable of any vigorous application even on the most pressing occasions.
闲适的习惯和懒散甚至是漫不经心，这些对于习惯于乡村劳动的人来说是与生俱来太自然不过了，因为他们每半小时必然切换他们的工种和农具，并且一生中几乎每天都要来回切换二十种不同的事情，这使得他几乎总是闲散，即使在紧张或者高压的场合也同样如此。
Independent,therefore, of his deficiency in point of dexterity, this cause alone must always reduce considerably the quantity of work which he is capable of performing.
因此，即使技能训练方面没有不足，原生自然的习惯本身就必定会大大降低他所能完成的工作量。
Thirdly, and lastly, everybody must be sensible how much labour is facilitated and abridged by the application of proper machinery.
第三点，也是最后一点，每个人都会意识到，恰当的机械应用可以促进效率，并减少劳动力。
It is unnecessary to give any example.
这点无需多言。
Ishall only observe, therefore, that the invention of all those machines by which labour isso much facilitated and abridged seems to have been originally owing to the division of labour.
因此，唯一的结论就是，由于劳动分工，所有那些使人工作变得轻松省力的机器的发明，最初似乎都应归功于劳动分工。
Men are much more likely to discover easier and readier methods of attaining any object when the whole attention of their minds is directed towards that single object than when it is dissipated among a great variety of things.
当一个人的全部注意力都集中于一个单一的目标时，比之于分散到许多不同的事物上，更容易发现达到目标的简便方法。
But in consequence of the divisionof labour, the whole of every man's attention comes naturally to be directed towards some one very simple object.
如此分工的的结果就是，每个人的全部注意力自然要倾注在某一种十分简单的对象上。
It is naturally to be expected, therefore, that some one or other of those who are employed in each particular branch of labour should soon find out easier and readier methods of performing their own particular work, wherever the nature of it admits of such improvement.
因此，可以自然地去预计，从事每一特定分支职业的某些人不久就会发现一些更容易、更快捷地完成他们各自具体工作的办法，无论哪里都会自然涌现出这样的进步。
A great part of the machines made use of in those manufactures in which labour is most subdivided, were originally the inventions of common workmen, who, being each of them employed in some very simple operation,naturally turned their thoughts towards finding out easier and readier methods of performing it.
在那些大部分劳动分工很细的制造工业中使用的机器，起初都是一些普通工人发明出来的，他们每个人都从事非常简单的操作，自然就会留心创造发明出一些更加简单和便捷的方法来完成它。
Whoever has been much accustomed to visit such manufactures must frequently have been shown very pretty machines, which were the inventions of such workmen in order to facilitate and quicken their particular part of the work.
经常出入于诸如此类制造厂的人，一定会经常看到许多非常亮眼灵巧的机器，这些机器是那些普通工人的发明，用于简化并加快他们各自特定工作的部分。
In the firstfire-engines, a boy was constantly employed to open and shut alternately the communication between the boiler and the cylinder, according as the piston either ascended or descended.
最早的蒸汽机，总是有一个男孩不断地打开或关闭锅炉和汽缸之间的通道，这要根据活塞的上升或下降而定。
One of those boys, who loved to play with his companions,observed that, by tying a string from the handle of the valve which opened this communication to another part of the machine, the valve would open and shut withouthis assistance, and leave him at liberty to divert himself with his playfellows.
其中一个喜欢和同伴玩耍的男孩注意到，如果从打开这种通道的阀门的把手绑一根绳子到机器的另一个部分，那么阀门就会自动打开和关闭，不需要他的帮助，这样他就可以和玩伴们尽情玩耍了。
One of the greatest improvements that has been made upon this machine, since it was first invented,was in this manner the discovery of a boy who wanted to save his own labour.
这机器史上最大的改进之一，就这样被一个试图省时省力，一个偷懒贪玩儿的小男孩发现了。
All the improvements in machinery, however, have by no means been the inventions of those who had occasion to use the machines.
当然，所有机器的改进也并非全是那些使用机器的人所发明。
Many improvements have been made by the ingenuity of the makers of the machines, when to make them became the business of a peculiar trade;
多数的改进贡献来源于制造机器的专业工程师的智慧，工程师逐步成为专业行当。
and some by that of those who are called philosophers or men of speculation, whose trade it is not to do anything, but to observe everything;
还有一些改进是由所谓哲学家或理论家带来的，他们不是做任何具体的手上活儿，而是观察一切；
and who,upon that account, are often capable of combining together the powers of the most distant and dissimilar objects.
然后，凭借他们的研究，他们往往能够把最遥远和最不相干的要素组合在一起。
In the progress of society, philosophy or speculation becomes, like every other employment, the principal or sole trade and occupation of aparticular class of citizens.
随着社会的进步，哲学或理论成为像任何其他职业一样，成为社会公民中的部分人群的职业选择。
Like every other employment too, it is subdivided into a great number of different branches, each of which affords occupation to a peculiar tribe or class of philosophers;
像其他任何职业一样，它也被细分为许多不同的分支，每个分支自成一派或者彼此争鸣；
and this subdivision of employment in philosophy, as well as in every other business, improves dexterity, and saves time.
像这种职业的细分，正如在每一种其他业务中一样，提高了专业水平，节省了时间。
Each individual becomes more expertin his own peculiar branch, more work is done upon the whole, and the quantity of science is considerably increased by it.
每个人在自己的领域中更加专精时，社会生产率将大幅提升，而科技水平也将飞跃发展。
t is the great multiplication of the productions of all the different arts, in consequence of the division of labour, which occasions, in a well-governed society, that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people.
在一个良善治理的社会中，正是因为劳动分工，各行不同工艺的产品和服务大量生产，这迎来了普遍的富裕，因此惠及到人数众多的普罗大众。
Every workman has a great quantityof his own work to dispose of beyond what he himself has occasion for; and every other workman being exactly in the same situation, he is enabled to exchange a great quantityof his own goods for a great quantity, or, what comes to the same thing, for the price of agreat quantity of theirs.
每个工人都有很多超出自身需要的产品要卖出；而由于其他工人正处于同样的境况，他能够用自己的商品或等值的价格换取其他人大量的产品。就这样各取所需。
He supplies them abundant with what they have occasion for,and they accommodate him as amply with what he has occasion for, and a general plenty diffuses itself through all the different ranks of the society.
也可以这么说，一些人满足另外一些人所需的物品或者服务，而另外那些人同样也为他所需的物品或者服务提供充裕的购买力，使得整个社会的各个阶层都享有普遍的富足。
Observe the accommodation of the most common artificer or day-labourer in a civilised and thriving country, and you will perceive that the number of people of whose industry apart, though but a small part, has been employed in procuring him this accommodation,exceeds all computation.
考察一下文明繁荣的国家中最普通的工匠或普通工人的日常生活用品，你就会发现，为了提供这样的生活供给，看似一件简单的产品，可是参与生产的人数之多和工种环节之复杂难以估量。
The woollen coat, for example, which covers the day-labourer, as coarse and rough as it may appear, is the produce of the joint labour of a great multitude of workmen.
例如，一件粗布短上衣，虽然看起来粗糙简陋，也是许多工人的共同劳动的产物。
The shepherd, the sorter of the wool, the wool-comber or carder, the dyer,the scribbler, the spinner, the weaver, the fuller, the dresser, with many others, must all join their different arts in order to complete even this homely production.
牧羊人、羊毛分类工、羊毛梳理工或羊毛刷理工、染色工、书写工、纺纱工、织布工、漂洗工、缝纫工，还有许多人，他们必须将自己的技艺用于完成这件不起眼的作品。
How many merchants and carriers, besides, must have beenemployed in transporting the materials from some of those workmen to others who often live in a very distant part of the country!
此外，该有多少商人、运输工人参与交易和协作呢，把原材料从一地运送到另一地，而他们往往分布在不同边远乡野。
How much commerce and navigation in particular, how many ship-builders,sailors, sail-makers, rope-makers, must have been employed in order to bring together the different drugs made use of by the dyer, which often come from the remotest corners of the world!
有多少商业和航海活动，多少造船工、水手、帆布制造商、绳索制造商，必须参与其中，以便将染料师使用的不同药材聚集在一起，这些药材通常来自世界上最偏远的角落！
What a variety of labour, too, is necessary in order to produce the tools of the meanest of those workmen!
为了生产出这些工人所使用的工具，又需要多少种劳动啊！
To say nothing of such complicated machines as the ship of the sailor, the mill of the fuller, or even the loom of the weaver, let us consider only what a variety of labour is requisite in order to form that very simple machine, the shears with which the shepherd clips the wool.
更不用说诸如船只（如水手的船只）、织布机（如织布工的织布机）等复杂的机器了，就让我们单单考虑一下为了制作最简单的机器——剪毛刀——就需要多少种劳动吧。
The miner, the builder of the furnace for smelting the ore, the seller of the timber, the burner of the charcoal to be made use of in the smelting-house, the brickmaker, the brick-layer, the workmen who attend the furnace, the mill-wright, the forger, the smith, must all of them join their different arts in order to produce them.
矿工、冶炼矿石的熔炉建造者、木材商人、冶炼厂使用的煤炭烧窑者、砖瓦制造商、砖瓦铺设者、负责熔炉的工人、机械修理工、锻造工、铁匠，他们所有人必须将自己的技术或者手艺参与其中才能制作出剪毛刀。
Were we to examine, in the same manner, all the different parts of his dress and household furniture, the coarse linen shirt which he wears next his skin, the shoes which cover his feet, the bed which he lies on, and all the different parts which compose it, the kitchen-grate at which he prepares his victuals, the coals which he makes use of for that purpose, dug from the bowels of the earth, and brought to him perhapsbya long sea and a long land carriage, all the other utensils of his kitchen, all the furniture of his table, the knives and forks, the earthen or pewter plates upon which he serves upand divides his victuals,
如果我们以同样的方式考察分解他们的衣服和家具的所有不同制作成分，他贴身穿的粗麻布衬衫，他穿的鞋子，他躺的床，以及组成它的所有不同制作成分，他准备食物的炉灶，为此他使用的煤炭，可能是经过长途海路和陆路运输从地底下挖出来的，他厨房里的所有其他用具，餐桌上的所有家具，刀叉，他用来盛食物和分食物的陶器或锡盘，
the different hands employed in preparing his bread and his beer,the glass window which lets in the heat and the light, and keeps out the wind and the rain,with all the knowledge and art requisite for preparing that beautiful and happy invention,without which these northern parts of the world could scarce have afforded a very comfortable habitation, together with the tools of all the different workmen employed in producing those different conveniences;
不同工种的人用来准备面包和啤酒的工具，让北方地区的乡村在没有窗户的情况下也能舒适居住的玻璃窗户（如果没有这项美丽而神奇的发明，这些北方地区的乡村几乎不可能提供非常舒适的住所），还有所有不同工匠用来生产这些不同便利设施的工具。if we examine, I say, all these things, and considerwhat a variety of labour is employed about each of them, we shall be sensible that,without the assistance and co-operation of many thousands, the very meanest person in acivilised country could not be provided, even according to what we very falsely imaginethe easy and simple manner in which he is commonly accommodated.如果我们考察所有这些东西，并考虑每一件物品所涉及的劳动种类，我们将意识到，如果没有成千过万的人参与协作，即使是最简单和最普通的生活方式，众多的普通的人将一一享有，这是不可想象的。Compared, indeed,with the more extravagant luxury of the great, his accommodation must no doubt appearextremely simple and easy; 当然，与上流社会的极端阔绰生活相比，上述这些普通人的生活用品的确显得再简单不过了。and yet it may be true, perhaps, that the accommodation of aEuropean prince does not always so much exceed that of an industrious and frugalpeasant as the accommodation of the latter exceeds that of many an African king, the absolute master of the lives and liberties of ten thousand naked savages.
但是，也许可以肯定的是，欧洲王子的生活方式支出超过勤奋而节俭的农民的生活支出的程度，可能并不比欧洲普工工人农民超过许多非洲国王享用生活日用品数量的距离，而非洲国王是10000个衣不蔽体的部落人群的绝对主人。
Summary of this section
本部分总结：
劳动分工带来三大效率提升，是三大革命性进化背后的洪荒之力
The division of labor brings three major efficiency improvements, which are the driving force behind three revolutionary evolutions.
Firstly, it promotes the formation of groups such as technicians, engineers, experts, and knowledge classes in batches, gradually leading to the evolution and accumulation of human capital.
首先，催生技术人，工程师，专家，知识阶层群体的批量形成，逐步促成人力资本的进化和积累。
Secondly, it eliminates the waste of time caused by switching from one type of work or profession to another, which is a progress in processes and opens up the evolution of production management methods.
其次是去掉由一种工种或者职业转到另一种工种或者职业的时间浪费，这是流程的进步，开启生产管理方式的进化史。
Finally, it promotes the invention and innovation of machinery, which is a technological progress. Although gradual, it ultimately sounds the clarion call for the industrial technological revolution, which is the true driving force for technological civilization evolution.
最后是催生机械的发明革新，这是技术的进步，渐进但是最终全面吹响了工业技术革命号角，它是技术文明进化的真正原力。
So, how did the division of labor first arise? Let's explore the causes of the division of labor together in the second part of this chapter of "The Wealth of Nations".
那么，劳动分工最初是怎么发生的，让我们进入《国富论》本篇章第二部分一起探索劳动分工的起因。
《国富论》原版全本持续连载