proto-industry

English

Etymology

From proto- +‎ industry.

Noun

proto-industry (countable and uncountable, plural proto-industries)

1. Domestic manufacturing or commercial activity seen as being a precursor to industrialization; cottage industry.
   • 1993, JL Van Zanden, The Rise and Decline of Holland's Economy, page 103:

     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.

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

     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.