What is meant by proto indrustlization? …

Proto-industrialisation refers to first or early form of industrialisation. Even before the factories came up in England and Europe, there was large-scale industrial production for an international market, not based on factories. This phase of industrialisation is referred to as proto-industrialisation.

Proto- industrialisation production helped the farmers in the following ways-

• Poor farmers started working for merchants as at that time open fields were disappearing and commons were being enclosed.
• Poor peasants who had earlier depended on common lands had to now look for alternative sources of income.So when the merchants come around offered advances to the poor farmers to produce goods for them.
• Due to this the poor farmers could be able to remain in the countryside and continue to cultivate their small plots.
• Proto- Industrialisation production supplemented the shrinking income of poor farmers through cultivation.
• This system also allowed them a fuller use of their family labour resources.