The Putting-Out System and Rural Industry

Before factories, much manufacturing took place in homes under the putting-out, or domestic, system. A merchant 'put out' raw materials such as wool or cotton to rural families, who spun and wove them at home and were paid by the piece. The system suited families who also farmed, and it let merchants expand production without building workplaces. But it had limits: merchants could not easily supervise quality or speed, materials were sometimes kept back, and transporting goods between scattered cottages was slow.

Historian Franklin Mendels called this stage 'proto-industrialization', arguing it built the skills, capital and markets that factories later used. Critics note that many proto-industrial regions never developed factories at all. The shift from home to factory also changed family life, since work moved away from the household and its own rhythms.