Division of Labor and Self-Interest

Scholars have, with justification, cited the relation between Sympathy and Self-Interest as the fundamental inconsistency in Smith's oeuvre, one resolution of which is based on their appearances decades apart, e. g. that the later supplants the earlier.  Regardless, there is a similar at least apparent inconsistency in the later work itself--between the advocacies of Division of Labor and Self-Interest.  Now, one resolution of that is that emphasis on the latter principle has been taken out of context, as a result of further historical developments.  In that history, his system begins as a response to Mercantilism--to a policy of Protectionism for unconnected domestic industries.  His alternative is the coordination of domestic industries, i. e. 'Division of Labor', and the elimination of Protectionism, i. e. transition to an inter-Nationalist Free Market.  But, then, Marxism, while continuing the breaking down of Nationalist barriers, advocates the abolition of Private Property.  So, it is in the context of a response to Marxism, that the Self-Interest principle becomes the defining characteristic of Smith's program, overshadowing the status of the Nation, with its coordination of domestic industry, as its original orientation.  The subsequent triumph of that eclipse is signified by the unrecognizability of the Mercantilism of protectionist tariffs in contemporary hyper-Individualistic American 'Capitalism'.  But, a threat to Private Property is not a concern of Wealth of Nations.  Instead, Smith is likely more modestly proposing that working in the context of a Division of Labor is an effective means to self-interested goals, with the proviso that one not concern oneself with what one's colleagues are doing.