Alongside of the present factory organization many households still produce much that they consume and to that extent the housework system still exists. There is still much hiring of labor by the individual household. Independent handicraftsmen still purchase raw material and work it up and sell the finished product. Middlemen still distribute the raw material of their industry among the workers in their homes and pay by the piece for the work done, while they themselves accept the risk of finding a market for the finished product. So the housework system, the hire system, the handicraft system and the commission system continue their existence along with the factory system. The factory system, then, has not supplanted the other systems. It has simply been added to them. But it is the most striking and remarkable feature of our present industrial system.

Questions

1. Name the economic stages through which society has passed.

2. In the first stage what was the economic relation of the household to neighboring households?

3. Was there an exchange of goods at this stage?

4. How did the second stage differ from the first?

5. What was the mercantile system?

6. How did the stage of national economy differ from the stage of town economy?

7. What is meant by business enterprise?

8. What steps in the development of modern business enterprise are mentioned in the text?

9. Explain the difference between each of these steps and the next succeeding one.

10. What is meant by the Industrial Revolution?

11. Do the earlier forms of enterprise disappear with the appearance of the later forms? Illustrate.

Supplementary Reading

BUCHER, Industrial Evolution, Chaps, i.-iv.

Ely, Evolution of Industrial Society, Chaps, i.-iii.

Ely, Outlines, Chaps, iii.-vi.

Hobson, Evolution of Modern Capitalism, Chaps, ii, iii., and iv.

Seager, Principles of Economics, Chaps, i.-iii.

Seligman, Principles, Chaps, v.-vii.