Cottage for everyone

The cottage industry in the late eighteenth century grew quickly out of the new ideals of mercantilism, and of the enlightenment. The cottage industry was a way for families to earn their living away from the fields. Families would come together and manufacture products, usually textiles, to make a profit. First a merchant would come and provide raw materials. Then the family would work together and make a finished product which they would sell back to the merchant at a reasonable price.

This cottage industry allowed for a massive population growth, and a decrease in poverty in Europe. It was also a step closer to forming the capitalistic ideals of the late nineteenth and early eighteenth centuries.