Abstract
Proto-industrialisation (PI) is considered to be a phase in the development of modern industrial economies which preceded and paved the way for industrialisation proper. Mendels first put forward the notion two decades ago [1]. He had two basic propositions. First, the proto-industrial phase was dominated by the spread of rural domestic manufacturing which linked more and more families to the pulse of national and international markets. Secondly, rural industrialisation was so widespread and so dynamic economically and socially that it became the major force propelling economies in the direction of phase two, or industrial capitalism proper, based on centralised urban production.
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References and Further Reading
F. F. Mendels, ‘Proto-industrialisation: the first phase of the industrialisation process’, Journal of Economic History, XXXII (1972).
F. F. Mendels, ‘Agriculture and peasant industry in eighteenth century Flanders’, in W. N. Parker and E. L. Jones (eds), European Peasants and Their Markets (1975). Reprinted in (4) below.
D. Levine, Family Formation in an Age of Nascent Capitalism (New York, 1977).
P. Kreidte, H. Medick and J. Schlunmbohm, Industrialization before Industrialization (Cambridge, 1981).
L. A. Clarkson, Proto-industrialization: the First Phase of Industrialization? (London, 1985).
M. Berg, P. Hudson and M. Sonenscher (eds) Manufacture in Town and Country Before the Factory (Cambridge, 1983).
D. C. Coleman, ‘Proto-industrialization: a concept too many’, Economic History Review, XXXVI (1983).
R. Houston and K. D. M. Snell, ‘Proto-industrialisation? cottage industry, social change, and industrial revolution’, Historical Journal, 27 (1984).
P. Hudson (ed) Regions and Industries: a Perspective on the Industrial Revolution in Britain (Cambridge, 1989).
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Hudson, P. (1992). Proto-industrialisation. In: Digby, A., Feinstein, C., Jenkins, D. (eds) New Directions in Economic and Social History. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22448-7_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22448-7_2
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