"domestic industry," a stage of rural industrial development with wage workers and hand tools that necessarily preceded the emergence of large-scale factory industry. (p. 641)

A cottage industry (also called the Domestic system) is an industry – primarily manufacturing – which includes many producers, working from their homes, typically part time. The term originally referred to homeworkers who were engaged in a task such as sewing or lace-making. Some industries which are usually operated from large centralized factories were cottage industries before the Industrial Revolution.