cottage industry

Definition
An industry where the creation of products and services is
home-based, rather than factory-based. While products and
services created by cottage industry are often unique and
distinctive given the fact that they are usually not mass-
produced, producers in this sector often face numerous
disadvantages when trying to compete with much larger
factory-based companies.

Cottage Industry is a specialized form of small scale industry

where the production of the commodity takes place in the
homes and the labor is supplied by the family members only.
The machineries or means utilized for the production of the
commodities generally are the common ones used at homes.
The basic characteristic feature of Cottage Industry is that it is
basically unorganized in nature and come under the group of
small scale industry type.

The commodities that are being produced by these industries

are basically consumable ones and are produced through the
utilization of the traditional techniques. Cottage Industry
especially started its function in the country sides of a country
where unemployment along with under-employment are
prevalent. Thus, this industry helps the economy by absorbing
a huge amount of surplus labor of the rural economy. Another
glaring feature of Cottage Industry is that it is not a mass
producer of commodities.

The main risk that is being faced by this industry is from the
factory based medium or large industries which are again
capital intensive in nature. This is because of the fact that
these large industries utilize all sorts of cost effective
technologies which enable them to supply the products at low
price. On the other hand, the Cottage Industry is basically
labor intensive and utilizes traditional techniques in
production process which are generally not cost effective in
nature which escalates the price of their product. The
products supplied by the Cottage Industry thus face risk of
extinction if they don't receive enough financial or other form
of support from the government.

Cottage Industry is often characterized by its enormous

potential for employment generation and the person getting
employed is basically regarded as a self-employed one.

It has been empirically found out that Cottage Industry has

given economic independence to the women in the developing
as well as developed countries.
The most common form of support extended by the
governments towards this industry is through forwarding of
capital subsidies.

Cottage industry
A cottage industry is an industry—primarily manufacturing—
which includes many producers, working from their homes,
typically part time. The term originally referred to home
workers who were engaged in a task such as sewing, lace-
making or household manufacturing. Some industries which
are usually operated from large centralized factories were
cottage industries before the Industrial Revolution. Business
operators would travel around, buying raw materials,
delivering them to people who would work on them, and then
collecting the finished goods to sell, or typically to ship to
another market. One of the factors which allowed the
Industrial Revolution to take place in Western Europe was the
presence of these business people who had the ability to
expand the scale of their operations. Cottage industries were
very common in the time when a large proportion of the
population was engaged in agriculture, because the farmers
(and their families) often had both the time and the desire to
earn additional income during the part of the year (winter)
when there was little farming work to do.
The use of the term has expanded, and is used to refer to any
event which allows a large number of people to work part time.
For example, eBay is said to have spawned a cottage industry
of people who buy surplus merchandise, and sell it on their
auction system.

History of cottage industries

19th c. ox powered double carding machine

Reine Berthe instructing girls to spin flax on spindles using distaffs

Hand loom at Hjerl Hede, Denmark, showing grayish warp

threads (back) and cloth woven with red filling yarn (front).

Cottage industries were the precursor to the factories that

would characterize the Industrial Revolution. Their formation
was prompted largely by the enclosing of the common lands.
Common lands were lands set aside for the common people on
which to garden or graze their livestock. Over time the rich
aristocrats enclosed the common lands, largely without
censure or punishment of any kind, leaving the poor people in
a major predicament. Bear in mind that if one was not a land
owner, highly skilled, or highly educated there were few
opportunities to make a good living. Cottage industries were
the solution that solved this problem and saved many of the
common people. Most of the work was carried out in the home
and was often combined with farming. There were three main
stages to making cloth: carding, spinning and weaving. Most
cloth was made from either wool or cotton, but other materials
such as silk and flax were also used. The woven cloth was sold
to merchants called clothiers who visited the village with their
trains of pack-horses. Some of the cloth was made into clothes
for people living in the same area. However, a large amount of
cloth was exported.

The process of the cottage industry involved the entire family

as most work performed in the 18th century did. In fact the
entire process moved from child to the mother then to the
father. First was the process called carding. Carding was
usually done by children. This involved using a hand-card that
removed and untangled the short fibres from the mass. Hand
cards were essentially wooden blocks fitted with handles and
covered with short metal spikes. The spikes were angled and
set in leather. The fibres were worked between the spikes and,
by reversing the cards, scrapped off in rolls (cardings) about
12 inches long and just under an inch thick.

The second process was known as spinning and this was

performed by the mothers. The spinning of wool, cotton or flax
was originally done by the spindle and distaff. The distaff, a
stick about 3 ft long, was held under the left arm, and the
fibres of wool drawn from it were twisted spirally by the
forefinger and thumb of the right hand. As the thread was
spun, it was wound on the spindle. The spinning wheel was
invented in Nuremberg in the 1530s. It consisted of a revolving
wheel operated by treadle and a driving spindle. This slow
process of spinning was a tedious process that remained
unaltered until the invention of James Hargreaves who
invented what is known as the Spinning Jenny. It is claimed
that one day his daughter Jenny, accidentally knocked over
the family spinning wheel. The spindle continued to revolve
and it gave Hargreaves the idea that a whole line of spindles
could be worked off one wheel. The machine used eight
spindles onto which the thread was spun from a
corresponding set of rovings. By turning a single wheel, the
operator could now spin eight threads at once.

The last process was performed by the fathers or the men of

the household, this process was called the weaving. The
weaving was done on a machine known as the handloom
weaver so weaving was also referred to as handlooming. The
handloom was devised about 2,000 years ago and was brought
to Britain by the Romans. The process consisted of interlacing
one set of threads of yarn (the warp) with another (the weft).
The warp threads are stretched lengthwise in the weaving
loom. The weft, the cross-threads, are woven into the warp to
make the cloth. Like the process of spinning, weaving
remained unchanged for a great period of time. Then the
twelfth child of a Yeoman farmer, John Kay invented the flying
shuttle, which enabled a weaver to knock the shuttle across
the loom and back again using one hand only. The speed of
weaving was doubled; and a single weaver could make cloths
of any width, whereas previously two men had sat together at
a loom to make broad cloth. Unfortunately John Kay had to
fight for the royalties of his invention his whole life and died a
poor man.

Recently cottage industries have been encouraged by

environmental groups to preserve areas of the rainforest by
aiding the local tribes in a sustainable way. The Maisin tribe
and others in Papua New Guinea is a notable example to
sustain the rainforest for future generations.
Handicraft and Cottage Industry Puri
The economy of Puri is largely dependent on the Handicraft
and Cottage Industry, Puri. Many of these industries in Puri
flourished because of the tourism industry that revolves
primarily around the Lord Jagannath Temple. The temple has
also encouraged the art and craft of Puri, and the Puri
handicraft and cottage industries are no exception in this
regard.

One of the most important cottage industries in Puri includes

the textile manufacturers. Kotki, Bomkai and several other
traditional saris and dress materials, in silk and cotton, are
renowned all over the country. Applique work of Puri is also
reminiscent of the temple art where small pieces of colored
clothes and tiny mirrors are shaped and stitched together in
various motives. These make wonderful umbrellas, canopies,
bags, lamp shades, wall hangings and other utility items.

The traditional Patta painting is also unique to Puri city and is

a product of the cottage industry of Puri. Animals,
mythological figures, flowers and trees are brightly painted on
a specially treated surface or patta.

The traditional set of 96 circular playing cards with paintings

is done by etching palm leaves and stitching together in rows.
These cards known as Ganjappa are fine examples of the
traditional handicrafts of Puri. Puri handicraft is also known
for the delicate filigree works in silver. Exquisite jewelry boxes,
cigar boxes, decorative trays and other items of silver filigree
are among the best in the world. Laquer work, bone carving,
bamboo work, stone carving and artifacts made with sea shells
are popular products of the Handicraft and Cottage Industry of
Puri.