Cottage Industries
| Author | Julie Watkins |
| Pages | 173-175 |
Page 173
Cottage industries is a term that was prevalent during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to describe the home-based system of manufacturing. This term is also used today to refer to goods or services that are produced at home. Sewing, craft production, sales and marketing, typing, bookkeeping, and auto repair are just a few examples of home-based employment.
Rural families were some of the first to become involved in the cottage industry. They added to their agricultural income by making products at home. Merchants provided the raw materials to the families, collected and marketed the finished product, and then paid the family a percentage of the price charged to the end consumer. Some of the items made by these at-home workers were cloth and clothing, shoes, cigars, and hand-decorated items.
Cottage industries developed in cities around 1870, resulting in the harsh tenement housing system. Immigrant families lived and worked in these crowded, unsafe apartment buildings. They worked for extremely low wages, usually making garments. This system lasted until around 1920, when better management of factories made home-produced goods less competitive.
Hand-decorating of items, sewing, and other highly specialized activities still operate as cottage industries today. Economists point to the rise of a new type of cottage industry whereby people can stay at home to perform work on their computers that formerly had to be done at the office. Telecommuters is another term used more frequently today to refer to home-based employment. Many jobs that used to require workers' physical presence in the office can now be performed from home. Running a business from home today requires only a couple of phone lines with call forwarding and call waiting, a computer with e-mail and a modem, a fax machine, a copier, and office supplies. For executives on the go, a cell phone and laptop computer can keep them up and running from just about any location.
There are many reasons that people choose to work from their homes. They can be experienced or inexperienced, young or elderly, healthy or physically challenged, single or married, with or without children.
Many mothers and/or fathers of young children find it more productive, more cost-effective, and safer to keep their children with them while...
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