Features and effects of protoindustrialisation on …

Proto-industrialisation refers to a phase of industrialisation which was not based on factories. Even before factories began to appear, there was large-scale industrial production for international market.
(i) In the 17th and 18th centuries merchants in Europe began to move to the countryside. They gave money to peasants and artisans to produce for an international market. The demands of goods had increased due to colonisation and the resultant expansion of trade. Merchants could not increase production in towns due to the monopoly and power of the crafts and trade guilds. They had the monopoly to produce certain goods and did not allow the entry of new competitors. The guilds were associations of producers that trained crafts-
people, maintained control over production, and regulated prices.
(ii) The peasants and farmers started working for the merchants. At this time open fields were disappearing and the poor farmers were looking to new avenues of livelihood. Merchants offered advances to produce goods to them which the peasants eagerly accepted. They could stay in the countryside and continue to cultivate their small lands. Proto-industralisation added to their shrinking income.
(iii) The proto-industrial system became a network of commercial exchanges. A merchant clothier purchased wool from a wool stapler, carried it to the spinners, weavers took up the later stages of weaving, and later fullers and dyers stepped in. The finishing of the cloth was done in London before the export merchant sold it to the international market. At every stage of production 20 to 25 workers were employed by each merchant, with each clothier thus controlling hundreds of workers.