The household in the economy - Essay Example

We will also look at the evidence and the various theoretical and methodological issues related to household economy. In the pre-industrial era, the household was a unit of production as compared to a modern household which is a unit of consumption in (Kertzer, 1991). According to Kertzer, “In a household-as-labour-unit model, the composition of the household is a product of the labour demands of the economic operation, whether it be a farm or a protoindustrial home workshop.” In the pre-industrial times the agricultural land formed the main source of income.

This was true even in the case of landless labourers. As such, the economy of the household and indeed its structure also revolved around the land. In countries, like France, where impartible inheritance was a custom, the households tended to be complex family systems. When France banned impartible inheritance in nineteenth century, it led to a progressive decline of the complex family households. Similarly, different inheritance systems in different parts of Europe led to formation of different household systems throughout Europe.

In these types of land based agricultural households, the women did not have much say in decision making. Household labour was almost entirely borne by the women while men concentrated on farming. With the advent of the industrial era, things began to change even in predominantly agricultural areas. The farmers whose lands were located closer to the urban areas could no longer be considered “as “peasants”, but as market oriented entrepreneurs. Before 1770s, textiles were mainly produced within the household.

But with industrialization, these labour intensive jobs moved out of the household and into the factories. On the other hand, the farmers who were producing milk were directly supplying it to the towns like Lancashire and Manchester. This led to the prosperity of farming households. Most of these successful farms were very small (upto 5 acres), and yet profitable