Adam Smith - Adam Smith is known as the "father of modern economics". In his best known book - The Wealth of Nations - he argued that more goods could be produced when workers specialized in completing one part of the production process. He wrote that 10 workers could make 48,000 pins per day if 18 workers each specialized in one of the 18 parts of the production process. 4,800 pins per worker per day. But, he argued, lacking specialization, one worker would be lucky to produce even one (1) pin per workday!

He also came up with the idea of "human capital" - the sum of a worker's skills, education, training, and health - and famously argued that this should be included when determining a country's total wealth.