HIST 223 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Early Modern Europe, Mercantilism, Breadbasket
15 Mar 2016
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Chapter 7: a widening market in consumer goods. Initially using surplus labor available during slow periods of the agricultural seasons, proto-industrialization led to specialization - not only in industrial production but also in commercial agricultural production. This allowed reciprocal trade favored by regional economies of scale. It resulted in accumulation of capital and in the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills by merchant capitalists, which facilitated the development of large-scale, and capital-intensive production methods in the full industrialization phase that followed. Proto-industrialization sparked social changes in traditional agrarian societies that would become more marked during full industrialization, such as greater independence of women and children, who gained a means of income separate from the family subsistence farm. During this phase of industrialisation, machines were not used. They were not even invented at that time. People could only use their hands or any hand-made material to produce required goods.
