ABSTRACT
The Domestic System is no simple and homogeneous form, sharply separated from the new system of the nineteenth century by well-defined features. Some of its later features are nearer to early examples of factory industry than they are to the earlier types of domestic production itself. To a general view it can be divided into two main phases. In the first phase, the craftsman retained much of his former independence. In the second phase, the dependence of the craftsman was much greater, and tended to increase until it was almost as great as that of the complete proletarian of the factory system. The crucial period of the development was the mid-seventeenth century, when a new class of capitalist interests, having their attention more centred in industry, began to appear. The four middle decades of the seventeenth century, in which the rise of new set of capitalist interests was taking place, were in many respects a period of change and transition.
