Book Chapter

The origins of the putting-out or domestic system of industrial production in England

  • Nicholas R. Amor

The putting-out system of production was a key feature of England’s woollen cloth industry and is regarded by many historians as a step along the road to capitalism. This paper considers the evolution of the industry in the late Middle Ages, the emergence of clothiers and their dependent out-workers and the nature of the relationship between the two groups. A detailed analysis follows of the growth, between 1475 and 1510, in the value of textile related debt litigation in the Court of Common Pleas, and revised estimates are given for the scale of the industry and the size of the workforce in the early-sixteenth century. Thus an assessment can be made of the importance of the putting-out system and its contribution to the success of the textile industry at that time.

  • Keywords:
  • clothier,
  • growth,
  • industry,
  • putting-out,
  • woollen cloth,
+ Show More

Nicholas R. Amor

University of Suffolk

  1. Amor, Nicholas R. 2004. “Merchant adventurer or Jack of all trades: The Suffolk clothier in the 1460s.” Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History 40: 414-436.
  2. Amor, Nicholas R. 2016. From wool to cloth: The triumph of the Suffolk clothier. Bungay: Refinecatch.
  3. Bailey, Mark. 2021. After the Black Death: economy, society and the law in fourteenth-century England. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  4. Banaji, Jairus. 2020. A brief history of commercial capitalism. Chicago: Haymarket.
  5. Barron, Caroline. 2000. “London 1300-1540”. In The Cambridge history of Britain, ed. David M. Palliser, 395-440. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  6. Bridbury, Anthony R. 1982. Medieval English clothmaking: An economic survey. London: Heinemann.
  7. Britnell, Richard H. 1986. Growth and decline in Colchester 1300-1525. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  8. Britnell, Richard H. 1997. The closing of the middle ages. Oxford: Blackwell.
  9. Britnell, Richard H. 1999. “Commerce and capitalism in late medieval England: Problems of description and theory.” Journal of Historical Sociology 6, 4: 359-76.
  10. Broadberry, Stephen, Bruce M.S. Campbell, Alexander Klein. 2011. “British economic growth 1270-1870: an output-based approach.” University of Kent, School of Economics Discussion Papers 1203.
  11. Broadberry, Stephen, Bruce M.S. Campbell, Alexander Klein. 2015. British economic growth 1270-1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  12. Carus-Wilson, Eleanora M. 1967. Medieval merchant venturers. London: Methuen.
  13. Carus-Wilson, Eleanora M. 1987. “The woollen industry.” In The Cambridge economic history of Europe, vol. II, ed. Michael M. Postan, and Edward Miller, 613-90. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  14. Carus-Wilson, Eleanora M., Olive Coleman. 1963. England”s export trade 1275-1547. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  15. Cornwall, Julian. 1970. “English population in the early sixteenth century.” Economic History Review 23, 1: 32-44.
  16. Cornwall, Julian. 1988. Wealth and society in early sixteenth century England. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
  17. Dobb, Maurice. 1946. Studies in the development of capitalism. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
  18. Dyer, Christopher. 1989. Standards of living in the late middle ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  19. Dyer, Christopher. 2005. An age of transition? Economy and society in England in the later middle ages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  20. Fenwick, Carolyn C. ed. 2001. The Poll Taxes of 1377, 1379 and 1381, part 2: Lincolnshire-Westmoreland. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  21. Gray, H.L. 1924. “The production and exportation of English woollens in the fourteenth century.” English Historical Review 39, 153: 13-35.
  22. Heaton, Herbert. 1920. The Yorkshire woollen and worsted industries, from the earliest times up to the Industrial Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  23. Hilton, Rodney, ed. 1978. The transition from feudalism to capitalism. London: Verso.
  24. Keibeck, Sebastian A.J. 2016. “The male occupation structure of England and Wales, 1600-1850.” PhD thesis, University of Cambridge.
  25. Kowaleski, Maryanne. 1995. Local markets and regional trade in medieval Exeter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  26. Lee, John. 2018. The medieval clothier. Woodbridge: Boydell.
  27. Lloyd, Terence H. 1991. England and the German Hanse 1157-1611: A study of their trade and commercial diplomacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  28. MacCulloch, Diarmaid, Anthony Fletcher. 2020. Tudor rebellions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  29. Marx, Karl. 1909. Capital: a critique of political economy, 3 vols. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr.
  30. Muldrew, Craig. 2012. ‘“Th’ancient Distaff’ and ‘Whirling Spindle’: measuring the contribution of spinning to household earnings and the national economy in England, 1550-1770.” Economic History Review 65, 2: 498-526.
  31. Munro, John. 2003. “Medieval woollens: textiles, technology and organization, c. 800-1500.” In The Cambridge history of western textiles, ed. by David Jenkins. 181-227. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  32. Munro, John. 2003 “Wage-stickiness, monetary changes, and real incomes in late-medieval England and the Low Countries, 1350–1500: did money matter?”, Research in Economic History 21: 185-297
  33. Munro, John. 2015. “The dual crisis of the late-medieval Florentine cloth industry c. 1320-c. 1420.” In Textiles and the medieval economy: production, trade and consumption of textiles, 8th – 16th centuries, ed. Angela L. Huang, and Carsten Jahnke, 113-148. Oxford: Oxbow.
  34. Oldland, John. 2014. “Wool and cloth production in late medieval and early Tudor England.” Economic History Review 67, 1: 25-47.
  35. Oldland, John. 2016. “The economic impact of clothmaking on rural society, 1300-1550.” In Medieval merchants and money: Essays in honour of James L. Bolton, ed. Martin Allen, and Matthew Davies, 229-52. London: Institute of Historical Research.
  36. Postan, Michael. 1950. “Some evidence of declining population in the late middle ages.” Economic History Review 2, 3: 221-46.
  37. Pound, John. 1986. The military survey of 1522 for Babergh Hundred. Woodbridge: Boydell.
  38. Pound, John. 1999. “Rebellion and poverty in early sixteenth-century Suffolk: The 1525 uprising against the Amicable Grant.” Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History 39: 317-30.
  39. Power, Eileen. 1941. The wool trade in English medieval history. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  40. Quinton, Eleanor, and John Oldland. 2011. “London merchants cloth exports, 1350-1500.” In Medieval clothing and textiles, vol. 7, ed. Robin Netherton, and Gale R. Owen-Crocker. 111-39. Woodbridge: Boydell.
  41. Sear, Joanne and Ken Sneath. 2020. The origins of the consumer revolution in England: From brass pots to clocks. London: Routledge.
  42. Smith, Richard M. 2012. “Measuring adult mortality in an age of plague.” In Town and countryside in the age of the Black Death, ed. Mark Bailey, and Stephen Rigby. 43-85. Turnout: Brepols.
  43. Staples, Kate K. 2010. “Fripperers and the used clothing trade in late medieval London.” In Medieval clothing and textiles, vol. 6, ed. Robin Netherton and Gale R. Owen-Crocker, 151-71. Woodbridge: Boydell.
  44. Stevens, Matthew F. 2012. “Londoners and the court of common pleas in the fifteenth century.” In London and beyond: Essays in honour of Derek Keene, ed. Matthew Davies and James A. Gallowa,. 225-45. London: Institute of Historical Research.
  45. Sutton, Anne F. 2005. The mercery of London: Trade, goods and people, 1130-1578. Aldershot: Ashgate.
  46. Sutton, Anne F. 2010. “London mercers from Suffolk c. 1200-1570: Benefactors, pirates and merchant adventurers, part II.” Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History 42: 162-84.
  47. Tawney, Richard H. 1938. Religion and the rise of capitalism. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
  48. Tawney, Richard H., Eileen Powell. 1924. Tudor economic documents, vol. I. London: Longmans, Green.
PDF
  • Publication Year: 2023
  • Pages: 263-285
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2023 Author(s)

XML
  • Publication Year: 2023
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2023 Author(s)

Chapter Information

Chapter Title

The origins of the putting-out or domestic system of industrial production in England

Authors

Nicholas R. Amor

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0092-9.16

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2023

Copyright Information

© 2023 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

L’economia della conoscenza: innovazione, produttività e crescita economica nei secoli XIII-XVIII / The knowledge economy: innovation, productivity and economic growth, 13th to 18th century

Editors

Giampiero Nigro

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

456

Publication Year

2023

Copyright Information

© 2023 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0092-9

ISBN Print

979-12-215-0091-2

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0092-9

Series Title

Datini Studies in Economic History

Series ISSN

2975-1241

Series E-ISSN

2975-1195

235

Fulltext
downloads

126

Views

Export Citation

1,302

Open Access Books

in the Catalogue

1,746

Book Chapters

3,161,365

Fulltext
downloads

3,984

Authors

from 820 Research Institutions

of 63 Nations

63

scientific boards

from 339 Research Institutions

of 43 Nations

1,142

Referees

from 343 Research Institutions

of 36 Nations