Cottage Industries
A Third Age Business & Employment feature
by our Business & Employment Editor

Cottage Industries were once the lifeblood of the British economy. They preceded the industrial revolution and mass manufacturing on a global scale.

The original Cottage Industry invariably involved the whole family working from their own home. Every member of the family contributed in their own way, and skills were passed from parents to children to grandchildren.

Many of the original Cottage Industries were borne out of the time when agriculture was the main occupation. In addition to those who specialised in various aspects of farming which made them a Cottage Industry in their own right such as wheelwrights and blacksmiths, farmers and their families would create an additional income for themselves by producing other goods in their spare time and particularly throughout the winter when there was little farming to be done. These goods would then be sold at local markets.

Later, merchants would deliver raw materials to the operators of these Cottage Industries and then collect the finished goods which they would then sell themselves because they had the ability to reach wider markets than did the local people.

The industrial revolution effectively ended the Cottage Industry when business operators established large manufacturing units to employ many of the original small Cottage Industry operators and to use their skills to produce the same goods but on a larger scale for a global market.

Today, early in the 21st Century, we are effectively seeing the reverse of that industrialization process in the West. Large manufacturing units (factories) are closing down because they have lost the competitive edge that mass production gave them. Their profits have been swallowed up by top-heavy administration, the burden of government legislation and shareholders who want only a quick return on their investment and who are no longer prepared to reinvest for the future.

Add to that the fact that in the UK employees are no longer paid according to their experience and length of service making it just as cheap to employ younger people, and you have an aging population facing an inevitably bleak future in the industrialized world.

Things have turned full circle. The days of the Cottage Industry have returned. They will have to. People in their Third Age will have little choice but to reinvent the Cottage Industry for their very survival!

(For Cottage Industry ideas, please see our Small Business Opportunities section).

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