Native endowment played a large part in broadening
the line of demarcation ; men adopted trades for which
nature, hereditary or otherwise, had fitted them, and
attained a success beyond the reach of the personally
unfit. The subdivision of labor has reduced the differ-
ences between trades, by reducing the trades themselves
to a minimum. The occupation of watch-maker once
involved an ability to make an entire watch ; and the
person who could perform this difficult industrial func-
tion was in no danger of competition from any but the
few who, like himself, had been able to serve the needed
apprenticeship. This trade, in the full sense, no longer
exists. In its place are a score of far simpler trades,
each limited to the performance of a minute portion of
the watch-making i^rocess. The functions requiring
especial deftness and accuracy have been handed over
to machines, and the difficulty of becoming a member of
the watch-producing group has been reduced to a
minimum. Though the occupation now demands far
less of personal superiority, native and acquired, than



WAGES AS AFFECTED BY COMBINATIONS. 139

was formerly necessary, yet, on the other hand, it
develops greater actual dexterity. The little that the
artisan now does he does exceedingly well. In a sense,!
therefore, nearly all the labor engaged in manufacturing
processes is highly skilled; yet but little of it requires
the personal attainments which were necessary under
the old regime.
