proto-industry

plural proto-industries

1. countableuncountableDomestic manufacturing or commercial activity seen as being a precursor to industrialization.

   Near-synonym: cottage industry

   2 more examples

   It is now generally recognised that the rise of cottage industry, or proto-industry as it is now more fashionably called, played an important role in the transformation of the West European economy during the modern era.

   1993, JL Van Zanden, The Rise and Decline of Holland's Economy, page 103

   Proto-industry allowed women family members (and sometimes children too) to engage in spinning, weaving and other menial industrial tasks within their homes, and thereby to supplement the income their husbands and fathers derived from agricultural work.

   2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 359

   Synonyms: cottage industry